China News Service, January 19. According to Taiwan's "China Times News Network", there are frequent reports of police suicides in Taiwan, and the mental health of police officers has once again attracted attention from the outside world.
A policeman surnamed Li in New Taipei City committed suicide on the 10th, and a policeman surnamed Lin in Taipei City also ended his life in the same way on the 18th.
The Taiwan authorities' supervisory agency released an investigation report on the 17th. A total of 22 police officers in Taiwan have committed suicide in the past four years. It pointed out that there are problems with the police's psychological support mechanism and demanded that Taiwan's "Police Administration" make rapid improvements.
An investigation report by Taiwan’s supervisory agency pointed out that a total of 52 police officers committed suicide in Taiwan in the past 10 years, and 22 police officers committed suicide in the past four years. On average, more than five police officers commit suicide every year.
"Supervisory Committee members" Ye Dahua and Chen Jingjun said that the police are a high-risk group for physical and mental stress. Due to the rotating nature of the grassroots police, day and night are reversed, and their work and rest are irregular. In addition, there are high pressures on project work and performance, and there are many emergencies that stop the rest. The police cannot be ignored. Suicide risk factors formed by long-term accumulation of personnel due to poor working environment.
Ye Dahua and Chen Jingjun further pointed out that while police officers continued to report suicides, only 5 cases were listed for counseling or counseling resources were provided during this period, and no police officers were aware of abnormalities or took preventive measures before the incident, which is enough to demonstrate the police's psychological assistance mechanism. Insufficient identification capabilities for high-risk objects.
According to the "Police Suicide Prevention Manual", it is estimated that about 10,000 police officers in Taiwan are emotionally distressed, and 6,000 of them have suicidal tendencies. However, prevention and treatment funds and service coverage are seriously insufficient. Only 300 people receive psychological counseling every year. -600 people.
The "Supervisory Committee" emphasized that the "Police Administration" did not pay attention to the mental health needs of police personnel. This part has violated the provisions of the "Mental Health Act" and the "Suicide Prevention Act". The rationality of the performance evaluation and service system must be reviewed. Pay attention to Risk factors such as work stress and long-term insomnia have an impact on the health of police personnel. Supervise various police agencies to improve internal management and service arrangements to ensure the protection of police mental health.
Taiwan's "China Times News Network" once interviewed a Taiwanese grassroots policeman. He believed that the frequent cases of police suicides in Taiwan were ultimately caused by institutional problems. Among them, the Taiwanese police's psychological counseling mechanism "Teacher Guan" (the representative name for police psychological counselors) ) is not confidential, so if the police go for counseling, their police career may come to an end. "If you go to 'Teacher Guan', you will be blacklisted for the rest of your life. Because it is not confidential, the superior will know the content of your conversation afterwards." ".
Another high-ranking police officer pointed out that the contradiction in Taiwan's police service system is that although the schedule is 8 hours, overtime is 2-4 hours, and rest time is 6-8 hours, the actual situation is that police often work overtime. The extension to 12 hours, and the inability to display these data on duty sheets, has resulted in many police officers working too long hours and causing a red flag for their mental health. This phenomenon is pointed out to be a vicious cycle.
The police officer further revealed that in fact, some officers in the Taiwan police are often too lazy to break down and review the life and service attributes of grassroots police officers one by one. They even bluntly said, “Sometimes they would rather spend their time dealing with politicians, socializing at dinners, and No one is willing to spend time on how to make life at the grassroots better, so that the outside world thinks that the police will never make progress and will always be born for politics."