The rate of suicide cases being recorded among personnel of the Ghana Police Service has become a subject of interest for some time now, with the public asking what could be the possible cause of such actions.
In an attempt to find out what could be the cause behind this, Director of Public Affairs at the Ghana Police Service, Superintendent MrsSheilla Kessie Abayie-Buckman in an interview with GhanaWebexplained that the nature of the police work is very stressful and they often refer personnel who have issues across the country to the police hospital for psychological assistance when the need be.
“Suicide is very preventable but it requires a collective effort to reduce the risk of suicide. Everyone undergoes stress, police by the nature of our work are stressed, from training you have to undergo basic training that everybody undergoes, this training is supposed to prepare you for what is ahead so that, if you can not carry on, you can take the decision early enough, from the training you are given coping measures as to how to approach this,” she said.
She further stated that “there are a collection of efforts that could prevent suicide, the minimum will be from the individual level because the experts say it is a result of clinical depression or some form of mental illness. We the individuals must recognize that when we are so stressed out or depressed to a point of helplessness, we need to seek professional help, just as we seek help for malaria, hypertension and other diseases.
“The police administration already have psychologists in the police service and at the Police Hospital where referrals are made from wherever you are in Ghana. We also have clinical psychologists and psychiatrist to whom officers are referred and then they give psychology evaluation to as in when people are referred to them”.
She also said, the police work is teamwork and demands a good working relationship and when one doesn’t get that support from his or her colleagues, it could be a factor to cause suicide.
“Our work is teamwork, hardly would you see an individual police officer performing a duty, even before that duty we go for briefing, parades and commands to connect with others and that is why the officers as individuals need to make use of these connections and associations to talk about our problems to help curb some of these suicide cases” she added.
In the last couple of weeks, at least three police officers have been found dead in what are largely suspected to be cases of suicide.
Listen to the interview below;
