Wilson

Daraine Luton, Sunday Gleaner Reporter

DR. GEORGE Leverage, psychiatrist in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) medical unit, has suggested that suicide prevention should be included in the curriculum taught at the police training school.

"I think that a good preventative approach in every law enforcement jurisdiction is to ensure that every curriculum that is taught in their training schools has a suicide component," Dr. Leverage told The Sunday Gleaner.

"In that way, everybody can get sensitised and we just don't think about suicide when somebody dies."

Since the start of the year there have been several cases of suicides recorded in the country, among them are police officers.

Since January, at least three have made attempts on their lives, two of whom were successful. In February, Corporal Ezra Dennis of the Special Anti-Crime Task Force shot his girlfriend to death in Eltham View, St. Catherine, before killing himself.

In October, Special Constable Wayne Christian 23, of the Spanish Town Police Station, shot and killed 31-year-old practical nurse Donna Messam of Comarty near Horizon Park and then killed himself.

And last month, Sergeant Alderman Doran of the Stadium Police shot dead his female companion at the Danny Williams School for the Deaf in Papine, St. Andrew. After shooting the woman twice, he made an attempt on his own life, shooting himself in the neck. Sgt. Doran is recovering in the hospital, but his condition is no longer considered critical.

Highly stressed

Dr. Leverage scoffed at suggestions that police officers are more predisposed to committing suicide, but he said the nature of the job done by these law enforcement officers makes them highly stressed.

"I would not say police have more suicidal tendencies and ideas than the general population.

"The majority of the police are under stress and the majority of them are armed. However, it cannot be viewed that the job predisposed them to suicide," Dr. Leverage explained.

Police have identified factors such as long hours on the job, low salaries, gruesome murder scenes, long hours and being away from home as major stressors.

Corporal Raymond Wilson, chairman of the Police Federation, said the federation would support any adjustment to basic or in-service training, like the one proposed by Dr. Leverage.

"We support anything that will help improve the police (officer's ) state of mind, not only for him to deliver good service to Jamaica but also to be of value and use to himself and his family," Cpl. Wilson said.

Suicidal thoughts

Cpl. Wilson said the fact that police face numerous stressors in the course of the job makes some predisposed to suicidal thoughts.

"Stress can lead to anything. If a situation should arise, irrespective of how minor it is, and you have absorbed so much of these stressful working conditions, it is likely that you may tell yourself 'Let mi done it here,' " he added.

Dr. Leverage has said that the police have become sensitised to managing stress and many of them are looking out for each other.

"They are looking at how to manage, they are also seeing and understanding what to do with their own colleagues. People are picking up signs of when their colleagues are under stress

"People bring themselves (for counselling) and supervisors recognise when guys are under stress and send them," Dr. Leverage said.

Recommendation

As a recommendation from the federation, the commissioner of police often recommends psychiatric evaluation for persons who have been before the courts on criminal charges.

Senior Superintendent of Police Reneto Adams and colleagues who were charged in the Kraal murders, and later acquitted, were subjected to such an evaluation.

Cpl. Wilson believes that such an approach should become a policy of the force which can help officers who have been interdicted as well as those experiencing post traumatic stress disorder