“Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

Illustrtion credit - "Lewis"

Theodore Roosevelt, former US president & New York city Police Commissioner, once famously said "Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care".

During the research for my book "LEADERSHIP IN MENTAL HEALTH - WHO’S PROTECTING THE PROTECTORS" many with whom I spoke with confided with me their own personal stories as it related to mental health and wellbeing in their organisation. These anecdotes have been de-identified to protect the individuals, their agency, and their nationality because of the fear of retribution from their organisation. Here is just one of those.

“..I was suffering with PTSI and tried to talk to my senior boss about what I was going through.. he just listened, but he seemed distracted and not interested .. he shook my hand and said that he hoped I feel better soon!.. his poor response nearly destroyed me..”

In 2016, following my personal experience with Post-Traumatic Stress, depression, and anxiety, it became apparent to me a tremendous gap existed in leadership in mental health within the law enforcement community. So, I set about identifying and researching what information was available on this topic more broadly. I was astounded to learn that little information exists on the topic, and even less within law enforcement. A glaring gap existed. Despite my efforts in engaging with the peak law enforcement research and learning bodies within Australia, there did not appear to be an immediate appetite to develop a leadership capability within the community.

Working alongside law enforcement agencies throughout the world, it became apparent to me that wellness and mental health in the workplace were an important issue, but for many, the opportunity to speak about, acknowledge, or discuss this topic was not an option. There are many reasons why law enforcement might not want to speak about their mental health issues. They include stigma, a feeling of weakness, or that they have failed in some way and may lose their job.

The continual feedback received across the world from those police and law enforcement working the frontline was they needed help in leadership in mental health and wellness now. I was told “we want something to show us the way forward, some simple advice and recommendations on how we lead and deal with our people who are suffering, or better help them from suffering”.

So, with that in mind, I set about writing this book. It has been designed to help those in roles of leadership responsibility move beyond awareness towards developing behaviour, proficiencies, methodologies, and acumen to overcome the void in mental health leadership. It will help to develop and implement tangible outcomes to support their teams and build a resilient and positive organisational mental health workplace.

In writing this guidebook, I will share my personal lived experience of what it is like to suffer with a mental health injury, especially my attempt at taking my own life. How I could get understanding, knowledge, and skills to aid my journey to better mental health, and identify, support and guide someone who is suffering? How as a leader, I confidentially help a colleague who came to me for help with a mental health issue. What would I do to support and guide following their acknowledgement? How to understand the many blockers that stop leaders and organisations in progressing a mental health program. Why elements of the law enforcement culture such as distrust, cynicism and scepticism impede in the successful uptake of support programs? What I have done to overcome the grief and moral injury of not being unable to support those friends and workmates who have taken their lives by suicide.

Importantly, I share my thoughts on why it is so important as leaders to first look after yourself and express ways in how I’ve worked towards achieving this.

I do so by using a combination of my life’s experiences as a thirty-four-year veteran of the Australian Federal Police (AFP), eighteen of those as a Senior Executive. I call upon my academic qualifications in leadership, policy, and governance, to share my thoughts and experiences in building capability in this area. Finally, by reaching into my skills as an elite athlete and qualified coach and trainer to share my health and wellbeing lessons, that may help readers develop simple strategies to better their own health and wellbeing. It is not a definitive book, it’s not an academic piece, it’s a book written as a guide to for readers to learn, using the contents to develop themselves, their team and potentially to challenge their organisation to embed a meaningful, sustainable, and dependable mental health and wellbeing program to ultimately save lives.