Managing the mental health of Queensland Police employees

Tabled Report 2: 2017–18

Tabled date

2017-10-10

Report year

2017-18

Health Justice and public order

Entities audited

• Queensland Police Service

Recommendations

1. QAO's text Addressed to: the Queensland Police Service

   better coordinates and enhances its staff wellbeing and mental health support service and information within a clear strategy and integrated framework (Chapter 2)

   The development of the new Our People Matter strategy is an opportunity to ensure all elements link together and align with the organisation's priorities.

2. QAO's text Addressed to: acts to understand and address the mistrust of some employees in its current mental health frameworks and support services (Chapters 2 and 3) The actions

   acts to understand and address the mistrust of some employees in its current mental health frameworks and support services (Chapters 2 and 3)

   The actions should include clarifying and better communicating the role of human services officers and their confidentiality obligations to improve employee trust and understanding about the role.

3. QAO's text Addressed to: improves how it designs, coordinates, delivers, and records its mental health training (Chapter 2) The enhancements to mental health training

   improves how it designs, coordinates, delivers, and records its mental health training (Chapter 2)

   The enhancements to mental health training should include:

   • increasing the coverage of the training across its workforce
   • ensuring training packages complement and build on one another
   • clarifying and emphasising the roles and responsibilities of leaders and managers in proactively manageing mental health
   • ensuring all mandatory training occurs and all training participation is recorded.

4. QAO's text Addressed to: the Queensland Police Service

   assesses options for screening employees prior to them leaving the service, and for enhancing post-service support (Chapter 2)

5. QAO's text Addressed to: develops processes and measures for analysing its data for trends and to assess the effectiveness of support services so they can be continuously improved (Chapter 3) These processes

   develops processes and measures for analysing its data for trends and to assess the effectiveness of support services so they can be continuously improved (Chapter 3)

   These processes should include opportunities for injured employees to provide feedback on their experience of the effectiveness of the services.

6. QAO's text Addressed to: improves the consistency and coverage of mental health screening and monitoring (Chapter 3) The improvements to mental health screening and monitoring

   improves the consistency and coverage of mental health screening and monitoring (Chapter 3)

   The improvements to mental health screening and monitoring should include:

   • developing a consistent approach to determining the specialist units for mandatory screening and health monitoring
   • improving the participation rate of employees in voluntary mental health monitoring
   • further exploring options, such as its pilot of online assessments, to expand the coverage of mental health monitoring to include general duties officers.

    

Authoritative report — Queensland Audit Office

Report PDF on QAO