Hampshire Police Authority

Mental Health (Staff and Officers)

The Constabulary is committed to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of its officers and staff and has put in place a variety of support mechanisms and educational tools to enable this.

Overarching these are a number of policies and procedures which all play a part in ensuring a healthy workplace for all, support to those who require it and comply with our duty under the Equality Act 2010.  These policies include Fairness and Equality in Employment, Disability, Stress, Attendance Management, Work life balance, Flexible working, Harassment and Bullying and TRiM.  

The Occupational Health and Wellbeing Department is the lead within the Constabulary in delivering a Wellbeing strategy which incorporates the mental health and mental resilience of its staff and officers and includes the following areas:

Primary interventions

  • Pre-screening and in role screening for vulnerable groups working in areas which expose the individual to unique stressors associated with the role, such as the Public Protection Department, Covert operations and Hostage negotiators

  • Resilience training for individuals and line managers and access to the i-resilience tool, an online personality questionnaire designed to look at the four key areas of resilience which promote mental wellbeing

  • Access to the Health Management Tool via the Employee Assistance Programme to assist in identification of stressors which may impact on mental health and wellbeing and tools to mitigate these

  • Access to Revitalised, an online health management tool providing advice on how to minimise and manage stressors

  • TRiM (Trauma Risk Management) awareness and defusion training for line managers to provide immediate support and education to anyone involved in a critical incident

  • Training for line managers and change agents on early identification of stressors associated with organisational change and how to support staff through change

  • Regular road shows delivered across the Constabulary to highlight support available both within the Constabulary and externally to enable early intervention  

  • Fact sheets accessed via the internal intranet on; how to support and communicate with someone who is suicidal or self-harming; line manager guides to supporting staff in the workplace who may be experiencing mental ill health; building resilience  

  • There are also discussions with the Learning and Development Department to develop some short toolbox talks on various topics including management of mental health

Secondary interventions

  • Provision of a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week Employee Assistance Programme – providing face to face, telephone or online counselling, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and specialist counselling such as post critical incident trauma counselling

  • Referral to the Wellbeing Advisor for specialist mental health advice and case management

  • Referral to Occupational Health Advisors for specialist case management

  • TRiM assessments post critical incidents

  • Referral to the Wellbeing Assistant for specialist advice on Flexible working and Work Life balance to promote mental wellbeing

  • Adjustments to trigger points for sickness absence where there is a known disability

Tertiary interventions

  • Referral to external support for EMDR (Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), alcohol and substance abuse and other specialist services (although there is limited budget for this)

  • Support through Ill Health Retirement, if required