The role of the police force in supporting the UK's mental health crisis
Recent figures by Police Scotland shows that police officers are dealing with an increase in mental health calls. The pandemic, and now the cost-of-living crisis have been blamed for a deterioration in the nation's mental wellbeing. Although police officers are not expected to be able to identify the specific symptoms of mental ill health, or attempt to diagnose illness, it is important that they can spot indicators of mental health problems.
Nicoll recognised her important position as a full-time police officer in helping to support people’s mental wellbeing and decided to take her learning into her own hands by studying a course with Open Study College. She found enjoyment in helping people and wanted to develop her knowledge and skills further to be able to provide even better assistance to those struggling.
After some online research and review checks, Nicoll found her perfect course at Open Study College, and decided to study our Counselling Level 3 course. Working a full-time job meant that distance learning was the perfect choice for Nicoll, and she truly benefited from working towards her own timelines. As someone that also has dyspraxia, a traditional learning environment can be challenging, so the flexibility of online courses was the perfect choice for Nicoll’s educational advancement.
Counselling course helping officers to better deal with offenders with mental illness
Thanks to the excellent tutor support provided, Nicoll now feels more confident to attend mental health cases. She has developed new skills, learnt the different approaches to deal with those struggling with mental health issues, and knows how to manage any situation that may occur.
Nicoll said: "As law enforcement officers, we face unique challenges in our work. Working full time as a police officer, this has helped with my role and made me more confident on many mental health cases. Now if we get a mental health call, I would use a different approach and know the signs and how to deal with it, all thanks to the course!".
Not only has the course helped Nicoll in the short term with her current role, but she also feels inspired to move into a mental health role and, potentially in the future, even start her own counselling business.
She continues: “It’s not easy to become a counsellor. You need lots of supervised hours and other things, but the Open Study College course is really good and really helpful. I’ve always worked in the public service industry but would love to change into a mental health role and one day launch my own business. This experience has been difficult at times but also very rewarding and fun!”
An online course in counselling lends itself well to many careers, not just policing. If you’re interested in expanding your knowledge in this area, take a look at our counselling courses.
