Police hoping to make in-house psychologist a permanent position

For the past year, the Saskatoon City Police have had an in-house psychologist for members who need help after being in traumatic situations on the job.

Dr. Lindsay Robertson has been on a one-year contract as part of a pilot project.

Police chief Troy Cooper says they will be taking a proposal to make this a permanent position to the police commission September 19th.

He said they have found real benefits to having an in-house psychologist as it’s been a great way for the members to seek help in a preventative way.

“By having it available, we’ve found that we’re reaching more staff. We think it’s an effective mechanism to provide that sort of preventative measure to our officers who are often exposed to trauma,” said Cooper.

Cooper added, the officers who need the help are more prone to reach out when it’s right there.

“There’s still a stigma around mental health and reaching out for assistance when someone is exposed to trauma and maybe they should seek mental health treatments and some advice. By having it in-house we’re able to actually make it mandatory in some situations.”

Cooper said it also allows for more monitoring of the staff to make sure they are receiving the treatment they need.

“There were gaps in our service delivery for our mental health program, and she’s been able to fill in those gaps and follow best practices around mental health support that we see for policing in Canada,” said Cooper.

Cooper said the permanent in-house psychologist position is included in the proposed 2020/2021  police budget.