THE number of sick days taken by police officers suffering from a range of mental health conditions has risen, and in some cases more than doubled across South Cumbria.
New data obtained in a Freedom of Information request by The Mail revealed officers from forces in Barrow, South Lakeland and Copeland took 957 days leave between them due to mental illness in 2016-17- an increase of 421 from the previous year.
When broken down into regions, staff in Barrow saw the biggest rise over the past five years with the steepest change taking place between 2015-16 when there were 354 days taken, compared with 703 in 2016-17.
Deputy chief constable Michelle Skeer said: "As an organisation that values the health and wellbeing of its staff, we are proactive in our approach to the identification and management of psychological matters.
“Officers and staff performing roles identified as high-risk undergo a mandatory annual psychological assessment in order to identify and address psychological issues at an early opportunity. This has resulted in an increased number of officers and staff being identified as at risk with appropriate support put in place.
“A force-wide wellbeing strategy has been introduced which concentrates on the individual and signposts them to a range of support options available to them. This is continually communicated to officers and staff to ensure they know how to access the support measures available.
Despite measures being put in place to help the force effectively identify and spot the signs of mental health conditions among staff, figures in Copeland and South Lakeland have also risen.
Between 2013-2015 not a single officer in Copeland took leave for psychological reasons, but this rose to 74 in 2015-16, and then 94 in 2016-17.
And, in South Lakeland the figures skyrocketed from 21 days taken in 2014-15 to 160 in 2016-17.
Ms Skeer said that "bespoke" training has been issued to all managers in order to help them support their staff and that this had led to a decrease in overall sickness figures, which accounted for both physical and mental wellbeing.
“The work that has taken place over the past two years is pivotal to ensuring that we have sufficient officers and staff available to meet the needs of the county and keeping people safe, whilst ensuring the overall wellbeing of staff.“
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