TRIGGER WARNING:  this post discusses suicide and mental ill-health very specifically amongst police officers – those affected by these issues should carefully consider whether or not to read on.  There is support available via the links and phone numbers at the bottom of this page, if needed.

Two separate news articles from opposite sides of our planet caught my attention this week: each of them referring to suicide and mental distress amongst police officers.  In the state of Victoria in Australia, the Chief Commissioner has set up two separate, but clearly related, external inquiries into police deaths and depression.  These reviews emerged after seven police officers in the last two and a half years took their own lives.  Set against a workforce of over twelve and a half thousand, that number may not seem large but that department estimate that as many as thirty officers are currently at risk…