Suspicious minds: Police Attitudes to Mental Ill Health

Abstract

Policing and mental ill health are inextricably entwined. The police have a role to respond to distressed persons and depending on the circumstances act as mental health practitioners or law enforcement officers.  Policing can have an impact on the mental health of those delivering the service. Those working within policing will either experience, work alongside and/or manage colleagues with mental ill health. Therefore it is important that the attitudes of police officers and police staff to mental ill health are established. The research employs the Time to Change Survey to bench mark police attitudes against the general public. Results indicate that police officers/staff hold similar attitudes to the public. However police officers are less supportive of community based interventions. Police data portrays an organisation where mental health related stigma persists, where discussing or seeking help is avoided and having a mental health issue seen as career destroying.