RUC 'role model in trauma treatment'

The Royal Ulster Constabulary was the role model for other police forces throughout the UK in the treatment of traumatised officers, a court was told today.

On the second day of a High Court compensation application by more than 5,000 serving and former officers, a lawyer for the Chief Constable denied the RUC had failed those who suffered lasting effects from the trauma they encountered combating terrorism.

The joint action in the Northern Ireland High Court, the biggest ever in the province, accuses the Chief Constable of negligence for failing to tackle injuries including post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.

The action alleges the RUC did too little, too late to help its traumatised officers.

But Nicholas Hanna, QC for the Chief Constable, disputed the accusation, insisting the RUC had been “well ahead of the field” in recognising problems and providing treatment.

“The truth is that the RUC did more and did it sooner than any other police force in the United Kingdom,” said Mr Hannah.

He added: “It was the first in the UK to have an Occupational Health Unit - six years ahead of the Metropolitan Police.

“The RUC Occupational Health Unit was regarded as the role model for other forces.”

The unit was set up in 1986 and provided the most progressive treatment of the day, he added.

Mr Hanna said understanding of trauma and its consequences was relatively new.

He said that, looking back to 1981, there was a chronology of surfacing concerns about the levels of stress in the RUC.

There was concern about alcoholism, suicides, gambling, separation and divorce. But it was never considered by anyone to be a trauma issue.

“Knowledge of trauma and its consequences began in the early 1980s in the United States and spread to Europe through the 1980s,” he said.