Blue HOPE visits Cairns police station before embarking on 9000km Qld road trip

A police mental health charity will set up in Cairns this week to confront the often difficult to broach topic of mental health, before beading off on a 9000km Queensland road trip.

Not-for-profit charity Blue HOPE will sert up at the Cairns police station to help frontline officers broach the subject of mental health. Photo: File

Blue HOPE this week will set up at the Cairns police station to confront the often difficult to broach topic of mental health among frontline officers before heading off on a 9000km Queensland road trip through about a dozen different police districts.

Blue HOPE’s five-week tour – which kicked off in Longreach on Anzac Day – is designed to connect with vulnerable regional police to help save lives.

Blue HOPE founding director, Detective Sergeant Andrew Ayres, a police officer for more than 30 years who is also a volunteer, said the charity had “set up shop” at the rear of Cairns police station and was providing a “coffee and chat” between 7am and 11am.

“It’s really important to catch-up with police in regional and remote areas because in some ways they can fall through the cracks when it comes to support systems,” Detective Sergeant Ayres said.

“The stigma that’s attached to police officers reaching out for help is what’s effectively preventing them from doing so.

“While law enforcement agencies around the country have their own internal strategies in terms of dealing with mental health and stress in general among police, there is a bit of a reluctance for members to use those services.

“Police officers are seeing more trauma in eight hours than some people do in an entire life … how do we manage that? Well, we have got to provide them with an opportunity to speak in a non-judgmental environment where they can vent and get all the bad stuff off their chest and know that they can come back to work and still do their job.”

Detective Sergeant Ayres helped launch Blue HOPE after a colleague took his own life in 2014. Other destinations on this road trip include Weipa, Lockhart River, Cooktown, Coen, Mount Isa and Bundaberg.

Blue HOPE has helped more than 1500 former and serving officers nationally and dealt with thousands of other inquiries despite being staffed by a handful of volunteers and relying solely on donations.

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Originally published as Blue HOPE visits Cairns police station before embarking on 9000km Qld road trip