I know that our facebook page is supposed to be about ‘humour’ but the point of the ‘humour’ is to try and help our colleagues who have to deal with the sort of incidents most people will never even hear about.
The type of incidents and calls that can leave you with reoccurring nightmares.
The job of being a police officer, or any other part of the emergency services, on the frontline really can be harrowing.
Having served for a number of years myself as a police officer on a 999 response team in the Met after leaving the military, I had my fair share of calls which still haunt me to this day.
I still have family and friends who serve on the thin blue line and I have tried to encourage a couple of them to talk about calls and incidents which they have dealt with that they still cannot process.
This story about a police officer who tried to hang himself outside of Cheshire Police HQ also struck a chord with me, because a colleague I served in the Metropolitan Police with for 6 years took his own life.
He was the ‘life-and-soul’ of the response team that I was on. He kept us all smiling, when morale was at rock bottom.
He was a Veteran PC who stood up for everyone on team and could always be relied upon to be the pillar of reason that kept everyone moving forward when all you wanted to do was jack it all in.
No-one would have ever thought that he would have taken his own life, but he did.
He was an absolute legend – the kind of copper that even ‘police haters’ liked.
So it saddens me deeply to hear about what happened to this officer.
The serving police officer tried to hang himself from a lamp-post at Cheshire Police’s HQ building in front of horrified colleagues.
The force later confirmed that the officer was taken to hospital and is now in a stable condition and is recovering.
According to the Liverpool Echo, the injured officer was described as being “a really nice lad” by a concerned colleague.
A spokesman for Cheshire Police confirmed to the Liverpool Echo that: “At 10.30am on Monday, September 10 officers responded to a concern for the welfare of a police officer at the main entrance of Force HQ.
“An ambulance was called and the officer was taken to hospital, where his condition is described as stable.”
Everyone here at Emergency Services Humour and Emergency Services News sends the officer our sincere and heartfelt best wishes.
Every police officer, both past and present, must NEVER forget that you are only human – and that goes for everyone else who serves in the emergency services / NHS.
You deal with the most harrowing calls imaginable. The human brain was never really intended to be exposed to repeated traumatic incidents, time and time again.
If ever you feel like things are getting too much, then please, just reach out to someone.
One of our Admins started a support group on facebook a few months ago for both current and former emergency services personnel.
If you want to know more about this group, then please just send us a message – we really are an approachable bunch.
Remember also that the team at Minds’ #OurBlueLight also do a fantastic job of looking after the emotional wellbeing of anyone who has served under a blue light. Their telephone number is: 0300 123 3393.
Or you can call the Samaritan’s on: 116 123
No-one should ever have to feel that the only way out, is to take their own life.
There ARE people who can help you; please, please, please just reach out…..
