‘Swinging the lead and working the head’ – An explanation as to why mental illness stigma is prevalent in policing
| Author | Nick Kealey,Sue Palmer-Conn,Sean Bell |
| Published date | 01 March 2022 |
| Date | 01 March 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X211049009 |
| Subject Matter | Special Issue Articles |
Special Issue: Are we OK? The State of Wellbeing in Policing
The Police Journal:
Theory, Practice and Principles
2022, Vol. 95(1) 4–23
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/0032258X211049009
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‘Swinging the lead and working
the head’–An explanation as
to why mental illness stigma is
prevalent in policing
Sean Bell
Department of Policing Organisation and Practice, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
Sue Palmer-Conn
Faculty of Science, Natural Sciences and Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK
Nick Kealey
Liverpool Centre for Advanced Policing Studies, School of Justice Studies, Liverpool John Moores University,
Liverpool, UK
Abstract
Policing can be injurious to the mental health of those delivering the service. The causes
can be operational, organisational or a mixture of both. Mental health related stigma is
prevalent within policing; thus, help seeking is avoided. Those who do seek help are often
thought to be malingerers. Managers are considered to be ill equipped to identify and
support those at risk. The processes and policies that are meant to support recovery do
not meet the needs of the officers and staff living and working with mental ill health.
Consequently, disclosing a mental health issue is seen as career destroying.
Keywords
police, culture, attitudes, mental health
Introduction
Many areas of policing are subject to increasing academic research, with police attitudes
and interactions to those with mental ill health being one of them. However, despite
initiatives like the Blue Light Campaign and Oscar Kilo –The College of Policing
Corresponding author:
Sean Bell, Department of Policing Organisation and Practice, The Open University, Michael Young Building,
B2 Wing, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK.
Email: sean.bell@open.ac.uk
Wellbeing Programme (2017), research into the lived and working experiences of police
officers and police staff with mental ill health is still relatively rare (Bell and Eski, 2016;
Blue Light Programme, 2016;Bullock and Garland, 2017;Edwards and Kotera, 2020;
Turner and Jenkins, 2018). The College of Policing (2020) identifies a range of trends that
could define the police operating environment for the next 20 years. The COVID
pandemic of today and a range of issues including rising inequality to climate change,
workforce automation and the expanding information space all provide challenges for
policing and will require an adaptable, healthy and resilient workforce.
The research gap has ramifications for policing, as mental illness is the second-largest
source of burden of disease in England and is more common, long-lasting and impactful
than other health conditions with nearly one in five adults aged 16–64 suffering from at
least one mental health disorder (Public Health England, 2019). Emergency workers in the
UK are more likely than civilian counterparts to experience mental ill health, whilst Police
personnel top the scale with 90% having experienced stress or poor mental health at work
(MIND, 2016).
The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) reported that 39% of police
officers had sought help for feelings of stress, low mood, anxiety and poor mental health
and wellbeing (Houdmont and Elliot-Davies, 2016) whilst Police staff suffer a similar
fate. UNISON (2014) reported that 32% of police staff were very stressed, 62% were
moderately stressed and 15% of police staff were referred to their force occupational
health department due to stress and anxiety, the same occupational health departments
subject to streamlining because of austerity and budget cuts. Rates of PTSD in UK police
forces are believed to be almost five times higher than in UK population (Brewin, et al.,
2020).
Police officer suicides rates are increasing. Analysis by the Labour Party found that the
yearly average has increased by almost a third from 17 between 2001 and 2009 to 23
between 2010 and 2017 (Townsend and Savage, 2019). Research on behalf of the Police
Foundation (Lewis, et al., 2019) noted that police sickness related to mental ill health was
worsening and nine out of ten officers who responded indicated they had significant
periods of poor mental health whilst at work.
Unfortunately, mental health related stigma is widespread in UK policing, and
officers and staff can find themselves ostracised personally and organisationally
(Bullock and Garland, 2017;Bell and Palmer-Conn, 2019;Lane, 2019). As a result,
officers and staff avoid seeking help due to a culture of invincibility, a lack of
confidentiality and a fear of hampering their career progression (Bullock and Garland,
2017;Bell and Palmer-Conn, 2019;Edwards and Kotera, 2020;Fox, et al., 2012;
Turner and Jenkins, 2018). Supervisors and peers often doubt the validity or gen-
uineness of colleagues with mental ill health insinuating that reported absences are not
bona fide and worse malingering (Bell and Palmer-Conn, 2019;Stuart, 2017;Turner
and Jenkins, 2018), in addition to the concerns raised by Jansz and Timmers (2002)
and the links to emotional labour and dissonance, that feeling of unease when
someone evaluates an emotional experience as a threat to his or her identity, so they
suppress their response.
Bell et al. 5
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