Men’s mental health is key to police suicide prevention

This article originally appeared on Policing Insight December 2019.

It’s been a little over a year since I came into the periphery of policing and in that time, I have lost count of the dozens of male officers, of all ages, ranks and titles, I have listened to, supported and held as they cried and what infuriates me is our organisational inability to specifically advocate, campaign for and support them as an individual group.

Much has been discussed about police wellbeing over the last 18 months, in great part due to the plethora of (not unexpectedly so) damning national reports and studies on wellbeing being published. Consider us all ‘aware’; what our men need now is for us to show up and deliver effective and impactful wellbeing initiatives specifically designed for them instead of paying office-political lip service to it or allowing bureaucracy to prevent immediacy to our action.

The biggest problem we have in our wellbeing discussion as an organisation isn’t that we’re not trying to take action but that we are attempting a ‘one size fits all’, command and control approach with a ‘break and recover’ mentality to all groups within the organisation but none more so than to the detriment of our largest and highest risk group for suicide; men.

In the UK, 75% of suicides are men (though more women attempt it), with men currently making up 70% in police, yet less than 50% of men are asked how they are in the workplace and less than 60% of male managers feel confident enough to support colleagues’ mental health despite work being the single biggest determinate factor in men’s mental wellbeing; so are we going to address the organisational (and international) herd of bull elephants in the room or remain the poacher that kills them?

When I ran a coffee morning for male officers only in London after speaking at a police conference on men’s mental health, I had women in both policing and academia call me everything from an “unqualified sexist” who was “betraying feminism”, to a ‘Badge Bunny’ “just looking for a police husband”; and I get it (the sentiment, not the abuse).

Whether anyone wants to acknowledge it or not, the ‘Boys Club’ is still rampant within parts of the organisation so for many it’s seen as incredibly controversial to advocate for men but allow me to repeat a line from my police wellbeing book; to ignore the wider plight of men’s mental health due to the attitudes of some, arguing perceptual political correctness toward minority groups and the public isn’t equality, it’s misandry. The biggest hurdle for our men isn’t just getting the organisation to specifically acknowledge men’s mental health but understand the myths within in. Men do not need to be traumatised or even mentally ill to die by suicide and until we acknowledge and accept that, we can’t deliver the education and design and deliver the initiatives necessary to reduce our suicide rate.

In the UK we lose many construction workers a month to suicide but we don’t consider their profession to be traumatic (despite them having the highest rate of all professions); it isn’t being police that increases the risk of suicide but masculinity; both a cause and effect of the macho-culture within The Job. It’s not The Job (or necessarily their trauma) killing our policemen but shame, and our inability to acknowledge and validate it as colleagues, friends and leaders.

For many men, suicide is founded within the control, risk-taking and impulsive aspects of traditional masculinity but because the organisation is historically and continues to be male- lead, no-one wants to discuss the obvious because they’re unable to see it themselves. Masculinity is also one of the factors why women in policing who die by suicide often do so by ‘masculine’ methods as many take on masculine traits, mindsets and personalities to be ‘accepted’ in the organisation.

So as a Subject Matter Expert, allow me to categorically state this; it is not sexist to discuss men’s mental health specifically and build tailored support systems for them. Research suggests that ‘women centred approaches’ (those primarily based on talking) to men’s mental wellbeing aren’t as effective as male-specific initiatives and that’s if we can even get men to engage with them to begin with; the primary focus of my work. Even the Samaritans recommends tailoring wellbeing offerings and support for men and yet, we remain silent on the topic.

Earlier this year, the New York Police Department lost 3 male officers to suicide in 9 days (they’ve lost 10 this year alone); more American Law Enforcement Officials die by suicide than in the line of duty each year and their police suicide rate is higher than the general population. The difference in our two continents, aside from America’s easier access to firearms, is that unlike America, in the UK we don’t yet even record the suicide of our officers (though this is changing). Why? Because it creates a reputational risk. By sharing that we lost an officer to suicide, we open ourselves up to difficult questions around legal liability but failing to record and share officer deaths for what they are not only shames them in their memory (shame their friends, colleagues and family have to bear) but continues to fuel the stigma associated with police/male suicide.

It is approximated that every suicide in the UK costs the economy £1.25 million and ‘affects’ 167 people leading to potential for suicide contagion in services and stations. On a collective level, mental ill health costs our economy approximately £94bn annually with around 300,000 people leaving their jobs each year due to their mental health. In 2016, it was estimated we lost 15.8m working days to mental ill-health (West Midlands Police losing 114 years (!) to it in 2018/19) yet those with mental illness contribute approximately £226bn; debunking the myth that those who struggle with their mental health are low-functioning.

In laymen’s terms, it costs police services more to do nothing (or waste funds on poor initiatives) for our men’s mental health than it does to invest in the initiatives and wellbeing support our men need to retain them as mentally well humans.

It costs Blue Light services more to do nothing or waste funds on disengaged initiatives for #mensmentalhealth than it does to invest in the correct support to retain them as mentally well humans #ForOurMen Click To Tweet

As the majority of men don’t need to be mentally ill (or even visibly struggling) to die by suicide, posters discussing ‘signs’ of mental illness don’t apply to a vast majority of officers especially when you consider that 75% of all those who die by suicide have had no contact with professional mental health services in the weeks or months leading to their deaths. Many coroners often posthumously citing ‘undiagnosed mental illness’ in male suicide even when there’s no evidence to suggest it.

Instead of overt signs, I discuss and present interpersonal ones with men such as lowered risk aversion within decision-making and harmful coping mechanisms etc.; signs that only those suffering with them are likely to know but what we really need to educate the organisation on is how to identify the risk factors associated with suicide within policing to proactively prevent deaths:

• Undergoing DPS/IOPC investigation or any disciplinary action
• Apathy toward any investigation or potential restrictions
• Relationship breakdown
• Family breakdown where children (especially with partner) leave the home
• Financial problems
• Due to retire/resign from the organisation or have recently left
• Unexpected change in job role or team
• Adverse childhood experience
• Going through therapy – talking/EMDR
• Anniversary or difficult dates
• Recent suicide of colleague/friend or attended run of suicide/self-harm calls

We can have the best trauma-processing, peer support and wellbeing initiatives in the world but if we can’t get our men to recognise they or colleagues are struggling (as The Job and the Life study suggested 80% potentially have PTSD without awareness of it) and seek such support, we are not only haemorrhaging funds on disengaged programmes but still losing our officers to suicide.

I’m not saying our current programmes won’t reactively help many; I’m arguing that the majority of men and those most acutely at risk of suicide (including women with masculine mindsets) require proactivity, strong psychological safety and solution/compassion founded initiatives which we don’t currently offer as an organisation.

In just 14 months I and my work have been credited with changing officers’ lives. Of saving several from their own suicides. Of helping them save the lives of suicidal male members of public they were called to attend and I don’t share that for acclaim but to prove two very important points around men’s mental health in policing. It cost me nothing but time and expertise to help them; we’re getting men’s mental health incredibly wrong as an organisation by refusing to acknowledge it specifically.

Every time I speak at a police event on male police suicide (most recently at Hampshire for the launch of their Men’s Forum) or men’s mental health within Blue Light Services (which I did at a Government-funded event in Jersey), I have a queue of men waiting to share their pain, and emails and Twitter messages full of the same so don’t tell me we don’t have a problem when my inboxes, phone logs and coffee receipts prove otherwise. And I haven’t helped all that I have through a ‘command and control’ mentality but by sharing vulnerability with them. Reminding them how proud I am of them. Using humour and yes, even hugging them…tattooed officers in full gear and executive senior leaders included!

The reason I am building a third party informal national signposting database for police and peer support network (focusing on matching those on long-term leave and recent leavers as suicides spike in each group), building male-only mental health police workshops, writing a book sharing officer/staff mental health stories and campaigning for a National Men’s Health Association in Policing isn’t because I ever planned to but because I feel compelled to. How can I sit in the light of discovery at the systemic mental health problems of our men and not take action?

I’m no longer asking or waiting for permission to help our men, I’m telling you I already am and we need you, as wellbeing teams, federations and senior leaders, to quickly catch up because I’m tired of reading needless ‘rest in peace’ and ‘reach out’ tweets from those in positions of power and responsibility to effect the necessary changes to prevent our suicides to begin with.

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