A six-year study has disclosed that 69 police officers lost their lives through suicide between 2016 and 2021.
This means that on average about 11 (exactly 11.5) police officers lose their through suicide every year, and almost one police officer commits suicide every month.
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This was disclosed by the Head of the Therapy and Wellness Department at the 37 Military Hospital, Dr Erica D. Dickson, last Tuesday at the 2024 World Suicide Prevention Day Forum in Accra.
Dr. Dickson said the trend as worrying and explained that the nature of their work is a major contributing factor.
She noted that because of their line of work, members of the security services were frequently exposed to potentially traumatic situations and emergencies, such as fatalities, house fires, floods, and car accidents.
This, combined with society’s expectation that they be tough and resilient at all times, exposed them to psychological trauma and raised their risk of mental health issues, including suicide.
“Just being in the service increases your rate of being suicidal.
“People in the service may develop all kinds of mental disorders ranging from acute stress disorders to anxieties to some serious adjustment problems and mal-adaptations to post traumatic stress disorder.
“They may actually have triggers of severe mental disorders,” she said.
She urged that issues of mental health should be taken serious in the Ghanaian society and proactive measures must be put in place to assist people.
Meanwhile, a recent study also found that included 268 police officers, 28 percent of the participants had suicidal thoughts at some point in their lives.
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Three percent of the sample were planning suicide at the time, 21.6 percent were making suicide threats, and 26.9 percent had suicidal thoughts within a year.
