As we come to the end of World Mental Health Day we would like to take the opportunity to reflect on this important issue with our Senior Lecturer Ian Lowe. Ian served in the Royal Air Force Police, then worked as a Highways Agency Traffic Officer. For the last 15 years he has worked in further education, as well as a trainer in Officer Safety, Fitness, First Aid and Leadership Development at West Mercia Police. On the UWE Policing team Ian’s main specialisms include leadership; teamwork; communication; decision making; organisation and management and use of force. He is also interested in high performance and mental health and has been working on trauma informed policing projects.
Over to Ian…
No longer a taboo subject?
Mental health has thankfully become much more of a topic for discussion in recent years. In part, due to TV shows like Ted Lasso and celebrities like Tom Holland (Spiderman) and Selina Gomez (Only murders in the building) talking about mental health in the media, a more open discussion is starting to happen.
But does the same hold true in Policing? Is there still a stigma attached to mental health in the police? To go old school a ‘stiff upper lip mentality.’ That didn’t affect me so you must be all right!
Causes of poor mental health
We know mental health or at least poor mental health is unique to the individual, and so are the causes. We all, whether officers or not, spin many plates; work; family life; social life; university; clubs (sport or such like); caring commitments. The list goes on. All these can add pressure and fill up our natural resilience to stressors that can have a negative impact on our mental health.
We all carry these around but let’s look at a few.
Family life: By this I mean anything happening at home or with your relatives. Living with people can be hard. I have always loved the door mat, ‘Friends always welcome, family by appointment only.’ Kids are the most amazing things in the world, and yet they can also be the most demanding. Anyone who has dealt with the sleepless nights of a new-born understands. Again, insert your own experience, coming home from work having had a difficult day… It is worth mentioning at this point that living alone has its own challenges and loneliness is cited as an ever-increasing problem in modern society, especially after the pandemic.
Friends: Has this changed since you joined ‘the job’. Your old friends don’t understand or your new police friends are the only ones who do understand. I personally believe it is important to remain grounded. By this, I mean connection to people who have known you for a long time, and who understand you on a deeper level, and have seen you though various stages of your life.
Caring commitments: Kids, partners, parents, grandparents, your partners parents/grandparents, even pets or animals. I have some idea how much time horses and dogs take up. Our commitment to help people is very real, either through want or obligation. But this can take a toll on you over time. I speak from experience.
Finally, the JOB! Policing or any of the frontline support services (ambulance, fire, probation, social work, NHS) provide, for simplicity, stress. In policing the thought of stress always seems to focus on the big events like murder, death, destruction. But evidence suggests that although these are certainly contributors, the biggest cause is the drip – drip – drip effect of these stressors. Bosses, colleagues, the job itself.
You’re on duty, just getting your kit together, your radio shouts into life for the first time that shift. Your first job is a mental health call. You do your best to support the individual, but you leave a bit despondent that there is not more you can do. Radio goes again, a domestic violence job, with a regular caller. You arrive and they have visible bruising, but again are unwilling to press charges. You are angry, frustrated. Still collecting your thoughts, the radio goes again… Does this sound familiar?
Your stress buckets
All these things continually fill up your reserves or to use a popular analogy your stress bucket.
Your resilience can only last so long, or as Dan John (an American strength and conditioning coach) calls it, ‘bounce-back-ability’. Your ability to recover from all these stressors, to literally bounce back to normal (whatever that looks like for you). To find your non-negotiables. Things, activities, hobbies, past-times in your life that allow you to keep releasing the stress, releasing the tap. I have not been specific on these, they are for you to find yourself, and I think it is healthy to find out what works for you. From CrossFit to croquet, reading to rafting, dungeons and dragons to dodgeball.
What can help your mental wellbeing?
There is no one size fit all for this, but I have a few suggestions.
Connect: talk to people, engage with your friends and family. Make new friends! This ideally should be face-2-face, meaning in person, not facetime. Be around people, preferably people you like, we are trying to help you. Get involved in whatever way suits you. But laughing really does work.
Give: engage with people, genuinely engage. Being truly present in a conversation and not half in a conversation half in your phone is powerful for both parties involved. Try it.
Take notice: get outside and just look at the world around you, see what is going on. Even better if you can find a green space or get further out into nature. The Japanese practice of Shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing. Spending time in a forest with no distractions has been shown to promote mental health.
Keep learning: this has so many benefits beyond mental health. Brain health, learning new things as we get older helps not only our mental health but can also help keep our brains healthy. Activities like playing music or learning languages are said to be particularly beneficial. This one links in to the next, but learning and playing new physical activities (sports) help maintain the mind and body connection.
Be active: Kids and dogs are great for this, but just do something. You work in a job with a compulsory fitness test, so being active helps towards that. But the endorphin releasing power of exercise is well documented. Exercise is also now being prescribed as a treatment for depression and anxiety amongst other things. It doesn’t really matter what you do, just do something. We are not talking ultramarathons here, unless of course you want to.
One of the components of the Code of Ethics is ‘fitness for work,’ and most take this to mean physical fitness, or at least not hungover. I have always taken it to mean not just physically fit for work, but mentally fit for work. Are you balancing the stressors of life inside and outside of work and able to function to the best of your ability?
As Jerry Springer used to say, “look after yourself and each other.”
Further resources
If you are concerned that you are developing a mental health problem you should seek the advice of your GP.
The Mental Health Foundation has some good signposting to services and organisations that can help.
All learners and staff at UWE Bristol can also access the wellbeing services.
Police Officers and staff can also the access Oscar Kilo National Police Wellbeing Service which includes policing specific resources such as their better sleep toolkit, online webinars, mindfulness training (MindFit Cop), physical fitness videos and more.
Editorial Team
Paul Williamson (Joint Programme Leader & Senior Lecturer); Claudia McCready (Lecturer); Eve Middleton (Tripartite Assessor – Policing); Eve Smietanko (Senior Lecturer); Ian Lowe (Senior Lecturer) & Micah Hassell (Senior Lecturer).
If you would like to contribute as a guest blogger, please contact paul.williamson@uwe.ac.uk