Police suicides: IGP deploys psychologists to all Police Regional Commands

The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. James Oppong-Boanuh has hinted that the various Regional Commands of the Ghana Police Service will soon have an office for trained Medical Psychologists to cater for personnel.

“Very soon, all the regions will have their fair share of trained medical psychologists”, he dropped a hint at a public event while speaking on the Welfare of personnel.

According to him, his outfit in partnership with the Ghana Psychology Association aims at building a sustainable mental health system to promote the health and wellbeing of Police personnel while improving their core mandate of ensuring peace, safety and security in the country.

The move he stressed is channelled towards checking reported cases of suicides among personnel though he was quick to add that investigations are yet to establish the actual cause of death of personnel.

“We are still investigating and yet to determine if these were indeed suicides or not”, he revealed.

In the interim Mr. James Oppong-Boanuh indicated that there are a number of professionally trained psychologists who attend to personnel as when the need arises.

“Personnel are referred to clinical psychologists and psychiatrists at the Police Hospital or any other accredited health facility. These are culminated by welfare meetings and counselling sessions by officers of our religious affairs directorate,” he pointed out.