{"id":288152,"date":"2025-07-24T14:45:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T14:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/288152\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T14:45:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T14:45:17","slug":"mental-health-issues-affecting-more-surrey-police-officers-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/288152\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental health issues affecting more Surrey Police officers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cash Murphy<\/p>\n<p>BBC News, South East<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1752661270_973_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/8be55890-670b-11f0-86bc-f75ca3f46b17.png.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Getty Images A stock image of a police officer in a high-viz police jacket. The officer's back is to the camera.\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>A total of 192 Surrey Police officers were signed off work for mental health reasons in 2023\/24<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">A rising number of Surrey Police officers are being signed off due to mental health issues, amid multiple pressures which have left many &#8220;really struggling&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">A Freedom of Information request submitted by Police Oracle, a news website which covers policing issues, found that 242 officers had periods of absence in 2024\/25 due to stress, depression, anxiety or PTSD.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">This is a 26% increase on the previous year, and according to the vice chair of Surrey Police Federation (SPF) Gary Stephen, not a surprise.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">He said the combination of stress, mounting workloads and pay was creating a &#8220;cocktail for tragedy&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;The mental load on officers has increased to such a point where officers are really struggling,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;The amount of traumatic events police officers have to deal with during their careers are not highlighted enough.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;Add this to the stress of workloads being so high and pressurised, and then not being remunerated well enough, and it is a cocktail for tragedy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Confirming the figures, Surrey Police said it has a number of support resources for those who are struggling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">These include free access to mental health first aiders, police chaplains, a 24\/7 Employee and Volunteer Assistance Programme, and a force medical officer. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">A demobilising and defuse service is available following a single incident of trauma exposure, while officers working within higher risk departments &#8211; such as roads policing and domestic abuse &#8211; can have psychological screening.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Earlier this year the SPF backed calls for <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cvgedrvvq7eo\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 bGFWdi\" rel=\"noopener\">greater trauma support<\/a> after it was revealed that three officers in the county had taken their own lives in 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">The increase seen in Surrey Police is part of a national trend described as &#8220;very worrying&#8221; by the wellbeing lead for the Police Federation of England Wales, Paul Williams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">He believes the above factors have &#8220;contributed to an extreme rise in mental ill health within the police&#8221; which, if unchecked, will only increase further.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cash Murphy BBC News, South East Getty Images A total of 192 Surrey Police officers were signed off&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4317],"tags":[105,218,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-288152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114908753378371530","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}