New mental health hotline to end police culture of ‘toughing things out’
Homicide detective Bree Sonter has witnessed some of the worst crimes imaginable during her 20-year police career, but she says her first three as a cop were the toughest.
“That’s when you go from living a relatively normal life to the world of policing,” said Sonter, now a 43-year-old senior police officer with the Queensland Police Homicide Investigation Unit.
“When I was 23, I was lurching from one crisis to another and trying to learn how to be a police officer, how to behave… [while] at the same time being exposed to all these traumas.
“It always felt like you didn’t want to stop because you didn’t want to think too much. But it doesn’t go away.”
Sonter expected the job to be challenging, but was surprised by the lack of support for officers who face daily stress and trauma.
“What was never disclosed to the police or to me… moral harm, organizational stressors, [and] “How do we recover after critical events?” he said.
“At the time… there was a perception that if you raised your hand, if you were vulnerable, if you sought help, you might be risking your career. There was a culture of just making things difficult.”
The consequences, Sonter recalled, were isolation, gradual deterioration of mental health, and, as happened to several of his colleagues, death by suicide.
Estimates suggest that 14 per cent of police officers serving in Queensland suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, 12 per cent experience serious psychological distress and more than 20 per cent have been diagnosed with depression.
A. 100-day review of the QPS workforce The report, published last year, found widespread fatigue, burnout and psychological distress among members, exacerbated by limited healthcare support. The review made 65 recommendations, including the development of a new health and wellbeing strategy and the introduction of a mental health support framework.
On Tuesday, the Queensland Police Association sided with minister Dan Purdie as he announced $5.5 million for a new 24/7 mental health helpline for members of the Queensland Police.
“More officers die by suicide in Queensland than die in the line of duty,” union president Shane Prior said.
“76 percent of our members said they were afraid to ask for help because they thought it would harm their careers.
“We have created an environment where vulnerability is more dangerous than the work itself. This ends today.
“We want to start injecting ourselves early into someone’s career to enable them to prioritize their mental health while also providing services that are preventative in nature.”
The helpline, known as Cop Care, is the first peer-to-peer support service in Australia and is led by leading police mental health and wellbeing researcher Dr. Supported by Jacqueline Drew.
“We lost more active and retired officers to suicide last year than we have in the last 15 years,” Drew said.
“We need to prevent psychological injury, not wait for an inevitable crisis to arise. Policing does not mean psychological injury if there are supports and services.”
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