Police officers within the MPS affected by mental health issues from 2019 to 2021

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.023361

I note you seek access to the following information:

Number of police officers within your force affected by mental health issues, and the number of working days lost due to mental health-related sick days.

Please would you send me;

For 2019;
A. The number of individual police officers within your force to have reported mental health issues (including a breakdown of depression, anxiety, PTSD, stress…etc.)
B. The number of individual police officers within your force to have had one or more days sick leave because of mental health issues (including a breakdown of depression, anxiety, PTSD, stress…etc.)
C. The total number of days police officers have been absent because of sick days due to mental health issues (including a breakdown of depression, anxiety, PTSD, stress…etc.)

For 2020;
A. The number of individual police officers within your force to have reported mental health issues (including a breakdown of depression, anxiety, PTSD, stress…etc.)
B. The number of individual police officers within your force to have had one or more days sick leave because of mental health issues (including a breakdown of depression, anxiety, PTSD, stress…etc.)
C. The total number of days police officers have been absent because of sick days due to mental health issues (including a breakdown of depression, anxiety, PTSD, stress…etc.)

For 2021;
A. The number of individual police officers within your force to have reported mental health issues (including a breakdown of depression, anxiety, PTSD, stress…etc.)
B. The number of individual police officers within your force to have had one or more days sick leave as a result of mental health issues (including a breakdown of depression, anxiety, PTSD, stress…etc.)
C. The total number of days police officers have been absent because of sick days due to mental health issues (including a breakdown of depression, anxiety, PTSD, stress…etc.)

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

QA - How many officers have reported to the force they suffer from mental health or notified the force in some way i.e. sought help, but may or may not have had a sick day due to mental health difficulties.

The Following data is for mental health general referrals to Occupational Health (management referrals from a manager, the reason is sickness absence), which are then flagged as having some sort of mental health component (e.g., stress) and EAP (employee assistance program).

Referrals to Occupational Health:
2019: 3,205 (general referrals from Jan-19, plus referrals from EAP as of Aug-19)
2020: 4,404
2021: 4,880
To note: 2019 is not a full picture as the process was different (prior to the business manager being in post and advised, not certain how new referrals were captured).

QB - How many officers have had one or more sick day due to mental health ?
QC - The total number of days police officers have been absent because of sick days due to mental health issues (including a breakdown of depression, anxiety, PTSD, stress…etc.)

I have disclosed the following information.

Please find attached to this email, a spreadsheets in which the requested information has been provided.