Wellbeing Dogs & Mental Health
Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FIN/24/002644/G
Version Date: 04/03/2025
The Wellbeing Department have provided the following information.
- How many wellbeing dogs are currently employed within your force, and if applicable, what breeds are they?
Dorset Police Wellbeing Dog scheme is run with a service-level agreement with the Oscar Kilo 9 (OK9) national project which is part of the National Police Wellbeing Service (NPWS).
We have a co-ordinator who has a wellbeing dog along with 3 other volunteer wellbeing dog owners. These owners have other roles in the force but use their dogs as requests are received from different areas of the force. Breeds of dogs within our OK9 Scheme include a black labrador, a golden retriever and a cockerpoo.
- If the force does not have wellbeing dogs, is there another resource or provider used for this purpose?
N/A
- Is there a mental health policy inclusive of wellbeing dogs?
The force has a Health and Wellbeing Policy which is currently being reviewed. This does not specifically mention wellbeing dogs but a focus of the policy is around Primary Interventions aimed at promoting good health and wellbeing.
The force has a Wellbeing Department which offers a range of supportive wellbeing initiatives across the force including co-ordinating the OK9 Wellbeing dogs.
Over the past five years, what percentage of total sick days taken by police officers and staff were due to mental health conditions?
|
Year |
% of mental health days lost against total sickness - Officers |
% of mental health days lost against total sickness - Staff |
|
2019/20 |
40.1% |
32.1% |
|
2020/21 |
39.5% |
27.8% |
|
2021/22 |
36.8% |
34.7% |
|
2022/23 |
48.6% |
27.5% |
|
2023/24 |
55.7% |
41.4% |
- What were the most common mental health conditions reported?
Due to changes in recording data, this information is only available from 2021/22 so the below are only relevant for the years 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24.
Please note also that over this timeframe there have been changes in some of the subcategories for Mental Health reporting so information has been condensed/combined where appropriate.
The three most common mental health conditions reported were ‘Other stress/Stress’, ‘Anxiety/Nervousness’ and ‘Depression’.