{"id":464045,"date":"2026-05-01T23:35:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T23:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/464045\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T23:35:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T23:35:14","slug":"number-of-tasmania-police-officers-off-duty-due-to-mental-health-doubles-in-five-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/464045\/","title":{"rendered":"Number of Tasmania Police officers off duty due to mental health doubles in five years"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 100 Tasmanian police officers are currently off duty due to mental health compensation claims, a number that has doubled in five years.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Tasmania Police said that as of February 28, 2026, there were 146 open mental health claims for police officers, and 102 officers were entirely off duty.<\/p>\n

In 2021, the Police Association of Tasmania said 49 officers were off work on claims due to psychological injury.<\/a><\/p>\n

There are about 1,450 active police officers.<\/p>\n

\"Shane<\/p>\n

Shane Tilley believes the community would “fully support six-to-12-month welfare checks” on police. (ABC News: Scout Wallen)<\/p>\n

Shane Tilley said that since he took over as the association’s president in 2023, the figure had increased by 7 per cent.<\/p>\n

“It is very concerning because not only does it leave those who are behind working to pick up the slack, but it also means that we have a higher number of people who are unwell and who need help,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said it reveals a problem within the police service, but that this is an issue every state and territory’s police force is dealing with.<\/p>\n

“Nationally, we need to do something about it, it’s about trying to retain and recruit people and keep them in the job and not break them.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Alan Beckley, an honorary professor at the University of Technology Sydney and a former UK police officer, has done extensive research into the mental health of police officers.<\/p>\n

\"Taser<\/p>\n

In 2023, a Tasmanian coroner examined the suicides of four police officers and made a number of recommendations. (ABC News: Mackenzie Heard)<\/p>\n

If you or anyone you know needs help:<\/p>\n

He said he was not surprised by these Tasmanian statistics.<\/p>\n

“You can’t tackle it very simply, it’s got to come from the top all the way down to the bottom, and almost people have got to be retrained to deal with it,” Dr Beckley said.<\/p>\n

His latest paper looked at rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, and found that increased distress levels, poor sleep quality, hazardous drinking patterns, exposure to trauma and specific work conditions are significantly associated with heightened PTSD risk.<\/p>\n

In 2023, a Tasmanian coroner examined the suicides of four police officers and recommended that Tasmania Police conduct mandatory six-monthly wellbeing screening of all officers for PTSD.<\/p>\n

The ABC can reveal that these checks are not being conducted.<\/p>\n

Dr Beckley said a program like this would be beneficial.<\/p>\n

“It needs to be wholly incorporated into the processes, and it can’t be optional; it must be mandatory,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Tilley said it would require more funding.<\/p>\n

“The community, in my view, would fully support six-to-12-month welfare checks on members; it takes strong people to have the conversation and to convince people like those that sit in Treasury that this is a great idea.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Tasmania Police said it runs checks for officers who work in high-exposure areas such as Crash Investigations, Forensics and the Coroner’s Office. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Tasmania Police said they have other measures in place, such as a Wellbeing Support unit, which conducts checks for officers who work in high-exposure areas such as Crash Investigations, Forensics and the Coroner’s Office.<\/p>\n

The workers’ compensation team was incorporated into the unit in 2022 “to align the person-centric model with workers’ compensation practices,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Another form of support for police officers is the Critical Incident Stress Management Program, which is automatically put in place for all people involved in critical incidents.<\/p>\n

“There are also over 80 psychologists and allied health professionals with contracts to provide services to our people,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

“Continued investment into staff wellbeing initiatives has led to more, not less, staff feeling comfortable to overcome stigma and request help.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Shane<\/p>\n

Shane Tilley says police have “generally hid a lot of their sickness and a lot of their demons”. (ABC News: Scout Wallen)<\/p>\n

Mr Tilley said he believed that Tasmania’s welfare and support system is one of the best in the country.<\/p>\n

“I actually engage with them for quite a period of time; I was going through a little bit of a dark time \u2026 I’ve been an advocate for it since because it brought me back into the right headspace.”<\/p>\n

But he said he had “no doubt” some officers would be slipping through the cracks.<\/p>\n

“It’s difficult to know \u2026 everyone’s journey is different.<\/p>\n

“When you have a workforce that is stressed through vacancies, through workers’ compensation, illnesses and all the rest of it, the workload doesn’t disappear, it’s just the worker that disappears for one reason or another,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr Tilley said.Compensation changes causing increase, police say<\/p>\n

In 2019, workers’ compensation laws were amended in Tasmania so that the cause of the PTSD would be automatically presumed to be work-related for the purposes of a compensation claim.<\/a><\/p>\n

The changes also exempted police officers who are injured whilst on front-line duty from a decrease in the weekly benefit payment made to an injured worker, after set periods of time.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Tasmania Police says the increase in claims is because support has been made more accessible. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

Mr Tilley said this would have played a role in making officers feel more comfortable putting in a claim.<\/p>\n

“There is a really, really good argument that police officers generally hid a lot of their sickness and a lot of their demons,” he said.<\/p>\n

“My personal view is that I think that police in general were more prepared to put their hand up and say, ‘Hey, I’m not well, I need some help and use those services,’ and also knew that they weren’t going to lose salary by doing that.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The spokesperson for Tasmania Police said one of the outcomes of making support more accessible was an increase in the number of compensation claims.<\/p>\n

Tasmania Police falls under the Department of Police, Fire and Emergency Management (DPFEM), which in 2024-2025, saw 229 insurance claims made, which resulted in a gross incurred cost of $13,757,293.<\/p>\n

These could include physical or mental health claims, and are across police officers, firefighters, SES staff and state service employees.<\/p>\n\u00a02022-23<\/strong>2023-24<\/strong>2024-25<\/strong><\/tr>\n\nInsurance claims<\/strong><\/td>\n198<\/td>\n220<\/td>\n229<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nGross incurred cost<\/strong><\/td>\n$11.24m<\/td>\n$10.77m<\/td>\n$13.75m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nSource: DPFEM annual reports<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

In the 2025-26 Revised Estimates Report released in February, an additional $60 million was allocated for the Department of Police, Fire and Emergency Management to meet workers’ compensation premiums.<\/p>\n

“We spend millions of dollars a year separating members from emergency services, police services, because they’re unwell,” Mr Tilley said.<\/p>\n

“Let’s work on bringing that back so that some of that money can be used to do well-being checks on our members.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 100 Tasmanian police officers are currently off duty due to mental health compensation claims, a number…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[276],"tags":[3083,203858,164,18,135,19,17,167,502,5915,203856,56766,3160,203857,173,7001,202142],"class_list":{"0":"post-464045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-anxiety","9":"tag-blue-wall-of-silence","10":"tag-depression","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-mental-health","16":"tag-mentalhealth","17":"tag-police","18":"tag-police-association","19":"tag-post-traumatic-stress-disorder","20":"tag-ptsd","21":"tag-shane-tilley","22":"tag-stress","23":"tag-suicide","24":"tag-tasmania-police"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116501946612444984","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}