Traumatised police and paramedics call for dedicated PTSD hospital ward
EMERGENCY workers whose lives have been devastated by work-related trauma want a dedicated hospital ward to help mentally ill workers.
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EMERGENCY workers whose lives have been devastated by work-related trauma want a dedicated hospital ward to help mentally ill workers.
A group of police and paramedics suffering post-traumatic stress disorder said the condition almost drove them to suicide, and that more needed to be done to help workers.
The Herald Sun can reveal a campaign is under way to establish a dedicated hospital ward to rescue suffering emergency workers.
Protecting the Protectors founder Detective Acting Sergeant Glenn Holland is behind the plan.
The proposal comes as welfare groups share concerns for the emerging generation of first responders now faced with “unmanageable” workloads and heightened violence.
Past and present workers said they were either not offered support or shied away from their demons for fear of losing their job.
A high-ranking police officer said he was admitted to a psychiatric unit after a breakdown and spent 10 days surrounded by patients such as drug addicts.
He then attended group therapy with civilians but got little help after being told his experiences were too traumatic to share.
Paramedic Belinda Ousley, 33, said her illness almost drove her to suicide, and that improper treatment delayed her recovery by six months.
“I saw a GP who had no idea about the line of work I am in,” she said.
Emergency workers are exposed to death, destruction and serious trauma on a daily basis, resulting in complex mental health problems.
Sergeant Rob Atkins, 46, soon to retire due to ill-health, said: “We need to be treated differently.”
Det Acting Sergeant Holland said he could not bear to lose another colleague to the “black dog” of depression.
“We are going to more serious crimes and offending is becoming more serious. This is playing havoc on our members,” he said.
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The proposal is one of many being considered by Victoria Police as it undergoes major cultural reform to “reduce the stigma of mental health”.
It has hired psychologists and social workers, and will soon introduce mandatory wellness programs.
Blue Ribbon Foundation chief executive Neil Soullier backed the hospital plan, saying it could fill a gap.
“There isn’t a perfect facility that suits police,” he said.
“There needs to be something more specifically aligned to police and other key emergency service personnel who can experience any event day or night and on multiple occasions.”
Former Victoria Police Constable and paramedic Don Gillies, who is currently on mental health leave, is among the many emergency services workers who support the proposal.
Every six weeks, an emergency worker in Australia takes their own life. Ambulance Union secretary Steve McGhie said PTSD accounted for one in every six workplace claims.
“They are dealing with people dying every time they go to work. They are trying to save lives all the time and sometimes they can’t,” he said.
Blue Hope managing director and former detective inspector Bruce Graydon feared today’s workforce would be far more affected by mental illness as it began its career at a younger age and faced greater workloads and patient violence.
“Decades ago police would hang around and debrief if they had a really bad shift. That doesn’t happen any more,” he said.
HOW THE JOB IS DESTROYING VICTORIA’S POLICE AND PARAMEDICS
SUPERMARKETS are one of the worst places for someone with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Former Victoria Police Sergeant Ron Fenton, 61, said for years he would do his shopping at 11:30pm to avoid the crowded, noisy aisles.
The former policeman had been shot in the head in 1984, but it wasn’t until nine years later that his PTSD took control of his life.
His horror past came back to haunt him while arresting a nightclub reveller in Werribee.
“The guy said he’d been in prison with the man that shot me 20 years earlier and that when he got out (of prison), he’d get a firearm and do a better job,” he said.
From that night onward, Mr Fenton would wake to the sound of his own screams.
He said his life slowly spiralled out of control, and that he tried to take his own life multiple times.
“I had three long-term relationships but I lost them. I lost my house. Financially, I am destroyed. I now live in the back room of a share house with a mate,” he said.
“My sons are the reason I stay alive.”
Sergeant Rob Atkins, 46, spent two years on secondment in the Solomon Islands where he regularly responded to child death and rape incidents.
He returned home, and was tasked with identifying the bodies of victims burnt alive in the 2009 Black Saturday fires.
“It was the final straw for me,” he said.
He said his anxiety and anger levels “blew off the charts” and that he almost destroyed his relationship with his wife and children.
He and his family have now relocated to country Victoria to try calm his troubled mind.
Former Sgt John Carter, 54, witnessed “countless” suicides and fatals over his 28 year career.
He began to unravel in August 2014 when his police car was repeatedly rammed by “drunk and drug crazed lunatics.”
“It in itself wasn’t a great deal but that’s when the nightmares started,” he said.
“They trigger incidents I have been to over my career. It’s not like a memory, it’s like you are back there ... you smell and hear it all again.”
Paramedic Belinda Ousley, 33, was pregnant when she tried to end her life.
She became suicidal during her protracted WorkCover claim process, in which she lost her house and almost her mind.
“I moved in with my parents. I barely left the house for 10 months,” she said.
“I was very paranoid, depressed and totally disconnected from friends and family. I lost my mind. I didn’t who to trust or what was happening to me.”
Many workers say they were not provided organisational support through their darkest times.
Though the stigma against mental illness is lifting, some emergency workers still do not trust their employers enough to reach out for help.
The Herald Sun has uncovered a secret Facebook page where more than 1000 emergency workers go for peer-to-peer support.
The founder, a serving Detective Sergeant and PTSD survivor, said the group meets up once a month in Melbourne, Geelong and will soon expand into Morwell and Bendigo.
“If it was organised by Victoria Police of Ambulance Victoria, it wouldn’t get the same turnout because people would be worried about reporting. We report on nothing.” he said.
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