00:02Shane Tilley has not come away from front-line police duties unscathed.
00:07I believe, through my journey, I think you can go in and out of being unwell
00:12and not so much treat yourself but deal with it yourself and come back into the fold a little bit.
00:18But for some, coming back into the fold isn't always possible.
00:22In 2021, the Police Association of Tasmania said 49 officers were off on workers' compensation
00:29due to psychological injury.
00:31Tasmania Police says that number has increased to 102 as of February this year.
00:37It is very concerning because not only does it leave those that are behind working to pick up the slack,
00:46it also means that we have a higher number of people that are unwell and that need help.
00:51Can't tackle it very simply and it's got to come from the top all the way down to the bottom
01:00and almost people have got to be retrained to deal with it.
01:05In 2023, a Tasmanian coroner examined the suicides of four police officers
01:10and recommended that Tasmania Police conduct mandatory six-monthly wellbeing screenings
01:16of all officers for PTSD.
01:18But Tasmania Police says these checks are not being conducted.
01:22It probably seems too hard, probably seems too expensive, but what value do you put on your workforce?
01:30And the community, in my view, would fully support six to 12-month welfare checks on their members.
01:36Tasmania Police says its wellbeing support unit, which conducts checks for officers who work in high exposure areas,
01:44is a nation-leading program.
01:46It says the government's 2019 presumptive PTSD legislation
01:50and the removal of salary step-down provisions
01:53has contributed to an increase in the number of compensation claims.
01:57In the revised estimates report released in February,
02:01an additional $60 million was allocated for increased expenditure
02:05by the Department of Police, Fire and Emergency Management
02:09to meet workers' compensation premiums.
02:11Let's work on bringing that back so that some of that money can be used to do wellbeing checks on
02:17our members.
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