Recent assistance given - July 2010
The PFOA continue to support our members and their families. Here are some examples from the past two weeks:
Officer having serious welfare problems removed himself from Ops and requested force OH assistance. He was informed he would have to wait 5 weeks for an appointment. This would mean he would be off ops for the five weeks plus however long he needed to go to OH. The PFOA stepped in and arranged counselling within 2 days (TWO) Officer now having weekly sessions with trained PFOA counsellor. This has resulted in our member and his family getting the support they needed fast, and the force getting their officer back to work at least 5 weeks earlier!
Officer seriously ill required private consultation with a specialist. Officers force could not pay for this as it would create long term issues with other requests. The PFOA were contacted by officers line manager. We posted cheque next day to cover cost of consultation. We are also arranging day out for officer and his family.
PFOA assisted in Cumbria following the recent tragedy in Whitehaven. Working closely with our friends from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary and its Federation we have assisted many officers and their families. This letter was received by the PFOA from the post incident manager:
I write to support the contents of your recent e-mail raising awareness
about the PFOA. As you are aware officers the CNC were deployed as part
of the police service response to the recent Derrick Bird shooting incident
in West Cumbria for which I was appointed the CNC lead firearms Post
Incident Manager. In this role I have had the privilege of working closely
with Mark Williams and Ben Lacey of the PFOA; Mark freely offered his
services to the CNPF (Nigel Dennis) within 24 hours of the incident and has
worked closely with myself Nigel Dennis and Peter Storey ever since. From
my perspective the support our officers' have received and continue to
receive has been first class. It is noteworthy that the PFOA has provided
support to all the CNC officers involved not just the AFO's! Control room
staff, dog handlers and members of the CNC command team who were on duty on
the day have all been given the offer of support. I am sure if asked those
involved will all unanimously echo my comments. Please feel free to use
the contents of this correspondence in support of your awareness campaign.
If I can be of further assistance please contact me personally.