BENGALURU: The suicide of 33-year-old head constable Thippanna Alugur of Hulimavu police station three weeks ago due to personal issues sent shockwaves through the police force. Unfortunately, he did not seek help from the department’s Well-Being Officers, who are stationed across the state.
In response to a spate of police suicides in 2016, the department took proactive measures in April 2017 by recruiting 59 well-being officers, all trained psychologists, to support the mental health of personnel statewide.
Bengaluru Police Commissioner B Dayananda told TNIE, “Our well-being officers are playing a crucial role in sustaining the emotional and mental health of police personnel and their families across the state for the last eight years. We have at least one officer in each district and more officers posted in a few other districts. They have emerged as an integral part of the police force. The cops who reach out to them are assured of complete confidentiality.”
Bengaluru has five such officers-- Kamalesh KS, Ramya SE, Harish HN, Soumya N and Wazeera Begum.
This reporter caught up with them to understand the impact they were making. The officers, filled with pride about their work, are quite clear about the critical need of such a unit for the nearly 16,000-strong police force in the state.
Ramya says, “We have all received comprehensive training from Nimhans on counselling those in distress. Like cops, we too need to be alert 24x7 as we never know when somebody might require urgent attention. We also hold yoga and meditation sessions for police personnel and their families to boost their overall well-being.”
Officer Harish explained that owing to assured confidentiality, police officers of all levels open up easily. “Cops handle an incredibly stressful job and must be available to assist the public at any time, so they undoubtedly deserve extra support. To ensure easier access, we have distributed our visiting cards to the respective divisions under our care,” he said.
Apart from sustained counselling, there have been a couple of instances where these officers have literally saved lives. Kamalesh said, “We reveal the identity of the cop only in rare cases. For instance, there was one cop whom I was counselling regularly.
He called me up suddenly one day and said that he had decided to commit suicide. He said he felt like informing me since I took a keen interest in him. I was trying to counsel him over call but had to act fast. It might be too late before I could personally reach him. So, I immediately called up the local police station and asked them to rush to his house with an ambulance. Luckily, they reached in the nick of time and barged into his house. He had even penned a suicide note and was about to commit suicide.” The cop is doing well now, Kamlesh added.