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Trauma Resilience in UK Policing

 

In order to meet the challenges of the pandemic, we turn to the most influential and insightful voices in resilience and mental health to find out what we can do on the ground to help protect our protectors that much more.

Who’s saying what about developing resilience in the police during Covid19? In this time of crisis, we can’t help but notice people stepping forward to help and encourage others to get through what we have to during Covid19. The Trauma Resilience in UK Policing project with Police Care UK and the University of Cambridge has been bringing lessons from neuropsychology and practices in mental discipline into the heart of operational policing for years. Now, the pressure is really on.

In April, Ruby Wax (who is patron of the UK’s Mindfulness Initiative, the world’s first Think Tank on Mindfulness in public policy) talks with Jamie Bristow (lead for the Westminster All Party Parliamentary Group on Mindfulness in Defence & Policing) on awareness in Covid19. During the chat, Ruby candidly asks, how do you try and convince the public to pay attention to their own thoughts? In answering that question, she refers to the work of neuropsychologist Dr Rick Hanson (listen in at 29:15/ 1.:02.21)

Dr Rick Hanson

Author of the book Resilient, Rick is a psychologist and New York Times best-selling author. He’s been an invited speaker at NASA, Oxford, Stanford, Harvard, and meditation centers worldwide. His books are available in 28 languages and also include  Buddha’s Brain, and Just One Thing.  His work has been featured on the BBC, CBS, and NPR. His new book Neuro Dharma offers new insight into the human brain and resilience like never before. 

Rick Hanson offers much guidance on Being Resilient During Covid19 and in April, Dr Jess Miller had the unique privilege to speak with Rick to the issue of trauma resilience for the policing brain during the pandemic. The conversation was rich, exciting and productive, offering practical tips for officers on the front line -as well as sound advice for leadership on how to embed resilient policing brain traits into the wider culture of policing longer term.

Two productive outcomes from our excitable talk about resilience and creating mental space around adversity are our infographics, "How resilient is your thinking?" and "Making space for the brain".

The interview is good to listen to for anyone interested in practicing resilience and a summary is offered here. 

Specific advice is also available here:

Covid19 Resilience for Chief Officers and leaders

Covid19 Resilience tips for officers and staff on the front line

 

 

 

 

 

 

More information about resilience and our work can be found at https://www.policecare.org.uk/covid19-resilience/ and by following @millerjessicak and @policecareuk on Twitter using #Covid19TIPT and #policingbrain throughout the pandemic. 

 

Latest news

Author's story

26 January 2024

The Marshwood Vale magazine of the South West features a front cover piece on Dr Jess Miller and how she found herself working in trauma resilience. To read a bit more about how the personal meets the professional, honouring the trusted adage "Re-search is Me-search", click here.

BLOG: The Policing Mind one year on

22 June 2023

Here Dr Jess talks about how her first book The Policing Mind: Trauma Resilience for a New Era has had impact since 2022: Transforming Society ~ Getting inside the policing mind In doing so, the book as been passed to the Home Secretary in the hope of further change to our police service being more trauma informed and open...

The Lancet featuring our trauma resilience project and trauma impact prevention techniques (TIPT)

23 March 2023

We are absolutely delighted to share that our project has featured in an essay by Jules Morgan in The Lancet Psychiatry on 21st March. Here is an extract : "People are only just starting to talk about complex PTSD, but we need to act now, says Jessica Miller (University of Cambridge, UK, and Police Care UK), Principal...

More project talk...