The Minister-designate for Interior, Mr Ambrose Dery, has advised Police Commanders to pay attention to the grievances of Junior Police Officers to help bring an end to suicidal cases among the officers in the service.
Speaking at the opening of a four-day course on mental health for Senior Police Officers, he urged the commanders to exhibit true leadership.
“Exhibit true leadership at various levels. When an officer reports to you, take note of the mannerisms of that officer and if you notice anything strange in their behaviour, please engage them. Don’t be dismissive of their concerns or grievances.”
Ambrose Dery
Mr Dery further said that, the mental state of the personnel was critical to ensuring effective service delivery and lauded the Police Administration for making mental health a mainstream course in police training.
Also speaking at the opening, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr James Oppong-Boanuh, indicated that the course would be replicated across the country to address some fundamental health concerns of the personnel.
He also averred that, the success of every organisation depended on the quality of its human resource and how satisfied the employee was and as such, the concept of employee welfare would always be part of organisational efficiency of the Service.
“Employees have always been integral components of the organisation and the continuity, viability and survival are anchored on them. One very important success criteria of every organisation is the extent to which it invests resources to support both physical and mental conditions of its workforce.”
James Oppong-Boanuh
Mr. Oppong-Boanuh also posited that policing was one of the most stressful, demanding and potentially depressing professions and, globally, among most law enforcement officers, suicide had been considered an occupational hazard.
He then said a number of police personnel go through stressful conditions due to family and work-related issues and the situation gets severe when such people have no appropriate avenue, to express their concerns for suitable redress.
“In extreme cases, they resort to suicide as the best solution to their mental agony. Recent happenings of some Senior and Junior Officers committing suicide are very regrettable concerns to the Police Administration. This unwanted trend needs to cease forthwith. You commanders have a very crucial role to play in this regard.”
James Oppong-Boanuh
The IGP said the setting up of a Counselling Unit indicates the commitment of the Police Service to improve the psychological wellbeing of members and its expected that the Unit manned by competent personnel would roll out a broad range of programmes to improve psychological concerns of staff and help them to overcome their struggles.
The IGP further indicated that, the counsellors would focus on individual treatment as well as group therapy to help others in similar situations to guide persons through the difficult transition of going from addict to functional personnel in the Service.
He expressed appreciation to stakeholders and the Ghana Psychological Association (GPA) for supporting the psychological wellbeing of police personnel.
The course, organised by the Ghana Police Service, in collaboration with the Ghana Psychological Association, is expected to enhance the knowledge base of participants to resolve issues pertaining to mental conditions of police personnel.
