Videos and animations

We have grouped together all our video content. These can be used within your own force to give guidance, share learning, supporting and improving the wellbeing of your officers and staff.

Introduction to Oscar Kilo

Find out all about Oscar Kilo, the National Police Wellbeing Service (NPWS), what we are about and the services we offer. This video can be used to promote the service locally giving officers and staff a better understanding of how we support them and their forces to improve wellbeing in policing.

Video transcript

We in policing experience several hundred traumatic events in our working life, whereas a general member of the public might experience one or two. It’s vital that the culture of an organisation, the leadership of the organisation and the interventions and support that organisation has got are all lined up.

It’s such a big issue wellbeing that, you know, some people don’t know where to start. Oscar Kilo, the National Wellbeing Service, gives you a framework to start planning, whether it’s in your office, your department, your division, your whole force. Our goal is to provide world class support for those people who work in the incredibly and challenging environment of law enforcement policing in this country.

One of the great things about wellbeing is that there’s a huge community of people out there, people who do tons of stuff around wellbeing on top of their day job, because they care passionately about it. By having workshops with those professionals we will bring into that research, knowledge, good practice, make sure if there’s more research needs to be done we can get it done and rapidly turn it into good stuff on the frontline. Those workshops have been really successful, it’s brought those professionals together and their information has helped inform where we take the service next, as well.

The vans are a big part of what we have always wanted to achieve in Oscar Kilo, that is getting out and about to the people who are often overlooked, those hard to reach people, the ones who are doing the vital work on the frontline. We’ve had over 10,000 people so far go through the vans getting physical health checks, psychological health checks, it’s had a massive impact already wherever those vans have gone. We have now got a fleet of ten vehicles, we’ve got fleet management that will rotate those vehicles around the country and the ability to go out and meet people actually where they work.

So it’s all about prevention and to do prevention well you’ve got to go and park your vehicles up where people work, put on a cup of tea, put some cakes on and invite people in. Our objective is there’s over 200,000 people work in policing, for every single one of those people to have seen those vans and had the offer to go and have a health check.

We want to take our fleet of vehicles out, not just do health checks with them but also deliver training at operational bases using the latest technology with the latest research to create the type of environment where people are not just coming to work to survive their day, their shift, but they are here thriving in what is an incredibly exciting, interesting and meaningful job.

Wellbeing in policing is here to stay. The National Wellbeing Service is part and parcel of the driving force behind changing our culture, improving our services and, most importantly of all, listening to the people who actually do the work to find out what it is that needs to be done so that they can continue delivering a fantastic service to the public.

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Real stories: The view from a call handler

This is the story of a police staff call handler who came forward to share her experiences in the hope it might encourage others to speak up if they are not okay. It is one of a set of three animations the others are covert protection officer and a roads policing officer.

Video transcript

I’ve been a call handler in the police communications room for 32 years, I take a range of calls on a daily basis from suicide attempts to armed robberies. I took a telephone call from a gentleman who’d witnessed a bus with a motorcyclist underneath it. The gentleman was obviously quite upset on the phone, I’m obviously getting the ambulance, getting the fire brigade, my colleagues are all working in conjunction with me.

The informant was saying to me, there’s a man trying to pull the motorcyclist out and I’m saying, well, who is he because, obviously, my concerns was, would he cause damage to him because we didn’t know whether he had first aid training this man. So, basically, he was an off duty fireman, he knew what he was doing and he was shouting saying, I’m going to have to pull him out. So he was pulling him out, the informant was telling me the motorcyclist was in a lot of pain.

The police arrived at scene and the police officer shouted the gentleman was deceased and I just burst into tears. And then you start questioning, have you done enough, did you get somebody there quick enough. That still upsets me because some family has had the most historic new son that day, but there’s nothing I can do about that, it’s just one of those things that we have to deal with on a daily basis. We have to deal with life and death, unfortunately.

Luckily, in my job we get a lot of support because we all deal with the same thing and we all deal with traumatic incidents and your colleagues do support you. You know, I don’t think you’ll ever find colleagues like you do in the police, to be fair.

Psychological screening programme

As police officers and staff we are at higher risk of suffering from psychological impact than others. This video explains the help and support that is available from the NPWS through our psychological risk assessments, part of our psychological and trauma risk management service.

Video transcript

As police officers and staff we’re facing increasing challenges. Our working lives may expose us to complex needs and traumatic events that may affect our wellbeing.

We have got to come to work and do what is a very stressful job in itself while dealing with stresses at home.

Some roles in policing are at a higher risk of psychological impacts than others and for these roles a support programme is available.

If you do a good enough act you can convince anybody that everything is OK.

The psychological risk assessment programme can help to identify when you may need support and address problems before they become more serious. You’ll get an email invitation with a secure link to a wellbeing questionnaire when it’s time to do yours, the process is simple, confidential and takes about 50 minutes to complete. If you don’t finish in one sitting you can save your answers and continue when you have more time.

Part of the wellbeing questionnaire asks about your childhood, this is because early life events can affect our physical, psychological and social wellbeing as adults. There are no trick questions, there’s no pass or fail mark or right or wrong answers, we just need to know as much as possible so that we can offer you the right support.

At no point did I acknowledge that there was something wrong with my mental health.

Your results will come back to you in a confidential report from your occupational health team, the details of which will not be shared with your line manager without your permission. The report might recommend that you need a follow up, this may mean speaking to an occupational health professional who will go through your assessment with you in a structured interview. Together you can decide if you’d benefit from extra help and look at what support is available.

It's important to know that such a follow up recommendation doesn’t mean you’re unable to do your job. The aim is to help you develop the coping skills and resilience you need to feel confident and capable in your role. No one should become unwell as a result of their work, the psychological risk assessment programme is just one of the ways we can identify the help you need to carry on doing the job you love.

Because the support is there even though perhaps you think it’s not.

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Real stories: The view from a covert protection officer

This is the story of a police staff member working in a covert protection team. He came forward to share his experiences of a stressful, all consuming role which eventually took its toll on him and his mental health. It is one of a set of three animations the others being a call handler and a roads policing officer.

Video transcript

I’ve worked within the police field as a member of support staff for ten years. About four years ago I was given a role that was working within covert protection looking after vulnerable people. We became their social workers, their benefits officers, their financial advisors, I think it would be fair to say they considered us as best friends.

I think the problems first started back in 2012, I effectively collapsed at work with a panic attack and realised at that point that I needed help. At no point did I acknowledge that there was perhaps something wrong with my mental health. I’d had thoughts of suicidal thoughts, not to be here anymore.

I wasn’t somebody that ever would have considered counselling. I found that just by speaking to a third party that wasn’t linked to either my employer or home was one of the greatest things that I could have done. They very quickly identified that perhaps the role that I was doing was the major contributing factor.

You need to ask for help because the problem starts getting better as long as you say those words. As long as you say, I need help, it’s very clear that you need help. People aren't mind readers, if you do a good enough act you can convince anybody that everything is OK.

Thin blue mind

Martin a police officer for 14 years, works in the serious crime unit. Part of his role involves viewing indecent images of children. He has always been confident and competent in his role, but unbeknownst to him it was slowly eating away at his emotional and mental wellbeing.

Video transcript

Therapist: Martin, can you tell me how you’re sleeping at the moment?

Martin: I’m not. I know I disturb my wife throughout the night and that makes her grumpy and it makes her fall out with me. But I lie in bed and listen to every little sound¬ in the house. I even hear noises from the children’s room. [Cries] I don’t even know if I love, if I love my children anymore. I just can’t be with them because I just can’t, it brings it all back. Every time I look at my children, I [Pauses] I just see the perpetrator.

[Video plays without talking 00:00:50 - 00:01:20]

Perpetrator: Do you think she likes it? What am I going to do with this ice cream?

[Video plays without talking 00:01:26 - 00:01:58]

Officer: You all right?

Perpetrator: All right?

[Video plays without talking 00:02:12 - 00:02:40]

Wife: So how many of you went on the trip, do you remember?

Son: About 29, 30.

Wife: Yeah? And what about you?

Daughter: No.

Wife: Put that back. You’ve got your own.

Martin: We can go faster, are we going faster? Are we going higher?

Man: Georgia. Georgia.

Son: My turn.

Daughter: What’s wrong, Daddy?

Son: What’s up?

Daughter: What’s wrong?

Man: Martin, are you OK?

Martin: You need to help me, mate, I need some help.

[Knocks on door]

Sergeant: Come in.

Martin: Sergeant, are you free?

Sergeant: What’s up?

Martin: Um, I’m struggling.

Sergeant: I’m going to have to ring you back.

Martin: Sarge, I need some help.

Sergeant: Come on in.

Therapist: So, Martin, how are you feeling?

Martin: Great. The best I’ve felt for a long time. Just being able to relax and have a good night’s sleep just makes me feel a whole lot better. Being able to take a break from the work has been a big help. Knowing that other people are feeling like this and other people have been through what I’ve been through and sought help. And it’s not weakness and it’s not that I’m going to lose my job in the department that I love. I just needed some time away from it. And having supportive supervision, my sergeant’s been absolutely fantastic in just allowing me to take a breath and just refocus on my life and just refocus on what’s important to me.

The steps that we agreed have just been absolutely fantastic, just being able to prioritise myself for once. I’ve even taken up jogging and I’ve even started reading again, spending more time with my family has meant the world to me. It just means that we can talk more and my wife understands what I’m going through. It doesn’t mean I don't want to go back to what I was doing, I do, I love the job, I love the people I work with. I’m starting to like work again, I’m starting to think that yes, I do have worth and I do contribute. So, yeah, so I'm feeling a whole lot better. I was able to speak to my wife last night and really discuss what’s been going on and how I’ve been feeling, which has been a weight off my mind, I can’t tell you how much. I’m the happiest I’ve felt for a very long time.

Therapist: That’s fantastic.

Real stories: The view from a roads policing officer

This is the story of a roads policing officer, who talks about balancing a stressful day job with caring for her autistic daughter at home. This is one of a series of three animations created to show the impact that working for the emergency services can have on the people behind the role.

Video transcript

At home I’m married to my husband, who is also a police officer, and we have two young children. The four year old was diagnosed with autism about 18 months/ two years ago. Quite often both of us could come to work after having absolutely no sleep, which is a challenge because then you’ve got to come to work and do what is a very stressful job in itself whilst dealing with distresses at home.

When we were going through the diagnosis stages that was very stressful in itself, but it also involved an awful lot of appointments with different specialist. And it is quite a private thing and initially you think first of all it’s nothing to do with work so why should work have to assist me in that, like, you don’t want to put on an organisation that’s already stretched.

I was really quite fortunate in that when I was going through that stage I had an extremely supportive inspector and he made it quite clear that whatever we needed he was there to support us, and he did. If I needed time off he would let me change my shift to suit what our requirements were at the time with appointments. So I would say, you know, it is well and truly worth having that sit down conversation with your supervisor because the support is there, even though perhaps you think it’s not.