How The Welfare Support Programme Helps Officers

HAMPSHIRE Police officers who are struggling with their mental health can contact the Federation for referral to the Welfare Support Programme.

The WSP, which provides confidential, dedicated counselling and follow-up support, is designed to complement the services already available through the force. But sometimes officers want to go outside the force, Hampshire Police Federation Chair Zoë Wakefield said.

Zoë said: “Recently we had a serious case and the counsellor provided by the force felt that he needed more specialist trauma support. So we referred the officer to the WSP. He took a fair bit of time off, but now he’s back at work and doing really well. He says he doesn’t know how he would have carried on without the support from the Welfare Support Programme.”

In a recent anonymous article on the PFEW website, two Derbyshire Police officers praised their experience of the WSP, with one saying: “My support worker was absolutely brilliant and so supportive from the very start. He was so easy to talk to and it very much felt like talking to a colleague who fully understood what I was going through.”

Zoë added that officers who needed counselling should go through the normal procedures with the force first, but were welcome to speak to their Federation rep if they needed a referral to the WSP.