A team from Bournemouth University has developed a mobile phone app to support mental health and wellbeing for police officers.
It has been designed and tested in partnership with Hampshire Constabulary and is available to it police officers and employees.
The app provides advice and information around mental health, wellbeing, and healthy eating. It can also be tailored to employees’ shift patterns, so they receive personalised notifications before their shift ends around how to rest and sleep well.
It has been developed by a cross-disciplinary team from the university, led by Dr Huseyin Dogan, with Dr Festus Adedoyin and Professor Nan Jiang from the Faculty of Science and Technology and Professor Jane Murphy and Dr Andy Pulman from the Faculty of Health and Social Science. Representatives from Hampshire Constabulary have also taken part.
Research by the team found that the working patterns and environment for police employees makes it more difficult for them to make healthy choices.
Pressurised environment
The research team said: “Police officers often work long, unsocial hours in a highly pressurised environment and may experience difficulties in managing their health and wellbeing. Their jobs can be highly stressful and may feature unusual working hours and multiple shift patterns.”
It is also looking at how the technology could be used to measure and track health behaviour change and the potential for the app to be used by other blue light services.
