The recent suicides and suicide attempts by police personnel in Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka have highlighted the urgent need for a system that can safeguard the mental health of the police force.
High pressure, erratic timings and intense working conditions often force the personnel to see the worst of humanity: these are just some of the concerns that need to be addressed, said professionals. The lack of an outlet to vent their emotions only exacerbates the situation.
There is a crying need of professional counselling help, senior police officers admitted. But they were cautious to add that counselling alone would not help unless working conditions were improved.
The former State police chief S.T. Ramesh said that often professional stress compounds the problems any normal personal may be facing from the family front or health, taking many of them to the brink. “The stress is so severe that I would advice providing a trained professional counsellor for every division in a city like Bengaluru,” he said, and added that this was probably the first time that professional help was being contemplated for police personnel in the State. Another official said that senior officials need to be sensitised to humanise their interactions with their subordinates.
Senior psychiatrist C.R. Chandrashekhar said suicides often occur as chain reactions. “There are several people in the police force who are under immense stress and are facing compounding personal and professional issues. But when one of them ends his/her life and it receives huge publicity from the media, it often acts as a stimulus for others. So what we need to do right now is to stem this chain and later look at the long-term institutional mechanisms to be developed,” he said.
But that is not all. Many psychologists have found loopholes in the recruitment process for police personnel where personality assessment is not part of the exam. Senior psychologist A. Sridhar suggested that entrance exams be improved by including a personality assessment test, and answers be evaluated by psychologists.
