Why police officers are suicide candidates

FAKAZI NKOSI

JOHANNESBURG - South African Police Service (SAPS) members who investigate cold cases and supply substantial evidence to the courts and still lose such cases are likely to commit suicide.

This has surfaced in a report compiled exclusively for The Citizen by Employee Health and Wellness (EHW).

The EHW is a SA police division, which provides support and equips police with coping skills in the form of support programmes which are available to all SAPS members and their immediate families.

“These include – separation from a partner, divorce, academic pressures, shame, terminal illnesses, loss of jobs, financial problems, general stress levels in the working environment and undetected/withdrawn,” said national police spokesman Senior Superintendent Tummi Golding.

“Within the general population of the organisation, the SAPS realised a number of psychological factors had been found to be associated with those particular incidences of suicide,” Supt Golding said.

She said research done on suicides in the SAPS indicates police officials tend to utilise the most accessible manner to commit suicide namely their service firearm. “Literature indicates males will utilise more lethal methods to commit suicide while females makes use of less lethal methods. This however cannot be generalised as the availability of the service firearm may result in utilising it as a method of choice.”

The EHW manages the National Suicide Prevention Programme through a one-day awareness raising workshop. The workshop focuses on: suicide myths and warning signs; intervention on what to do when one is faced with a suicidal individual within his working environment; on the scene intervention and unexpected reactions such as stress; the cause, consequences and bodily reactions are monitored.