Psychologist PK talks about police health, recommends early retirement

The number of policemen released from the official weapon because of the health problems of psychological nature is a total of 20. Of this number of four officials are found on medical leave classified as special health cases, reports Online Economy.

Although psychological tests for police officials are not conducted in current KK procedures, psychologists at the Health Services Directorate have conducted a total of 155 psychological sessions for 68 officials during 2019.

One of the psychologists in the Kosovo Police, who has dealt with these cases, Arton Ademi, tells Online Economy that the law of Invalidity at work or even the early retirement of police officers would be a relief in such cases to psychologically troubled policemen.

It's not a very large number, in the face of the difficulties that police members face. As if he had been disabled, the work invalidity law, or early retirement, normally helped us as an institution. It would have been a comforting form because it had greatly helped preserve the police institution, preserve the emotional and psychological health of the police member”, Ademi told EO.

According to the psychologist, members of the Kosovo Police are prejudiced and stigmatized in cases when they do research on psychologists. For that reason he also urges all citizens not to make such labels for the police, since their psychic state has resulted from their work.

Ademi says the public should not become a judge if a policeman receives treatment from a psychologist.

If a psychologist's treatment is taken, everyone will be biased or feel like he's stigmatized. Normally, if it is said that police members with problems of emotional psychological conditions who can manifest themselves in their work capacity, then unfortunately the public becomes a judge, executed, anything is done by labeling a member of the police. ”

They forget the fact that each member of the police is originally human, then there's a certain profession. Even normally, his condition has resulted from his work, not from other things that could be manifested. I had asked the public in this case not to label many members of the police. Don't stigmatize that we're part of society, at least what we're trying to do is offer you a support, a prevention for different negative phenomena that members of police face every day”, Ademi said.

Without wanting to show statistics, Ademi says that there are policemen who have difficulty dealing with behavior and have stress problems, but depending on the cases they have psychological sessions.

We have a number that have difficulty in terms of behavior, stress, their emotional situation that is faced with either daily or other tasks that they have outside of official life, or said otherwise, family life. We have an ongoing number of them that we follow, depending on the needs and the random, then we take measures with the maintenance of psychological sessions. If there is a need for therapy intervention, it is a professional field that provides therapy, this case of psychiatry, and then the member's emotional state is conveyed and the institution's needs are provided in the face of the needs of member”, he stressed.

According to the psychologist, if a member of the KP proves unable to perform professional equipment, then it can be accommodated in any administrative work.

We are constantly supporting members of the police to overcome the difficulties they face. If a member of police is released from professional equipment and has no ability to perform the duty of a member of police in uniform or professional police equipment, it does not mean the same is unable to perform other administrative duties. As long as they cannot perform a job with professional equipment, they can perform other administrative work”, Ademi said.

Starting with the last case where former Kosovo Police member Valdete Blace killed parents, brothers and then even himself with official weapons, Ademi does not deny that members of the psychiatricly challenged police could pose risks.

And we can't deny the fact that normally it's very high risk that each individual can present, but this could have come from any citizen of Kosovo who can do that, we have a case in Prizren where the boy allegedly executed his parents, so what's left of the police is that his official police equipment recommended for release. The rest is impossible for each individual to oversee what he can do in his private life. He probably even had guns from outside the police that beat the top off of this”, Ademi said.

He indicated that in the Kosovo Police, there are two psychologists who deal only with the state of the police, who receive various psychological examinations.

“We are two psychologists, only specialised units have periodic checks each year, while the rest depending on the state of health they can manifest even when in office and conduct different psychological examinations by the police psychologist or even by further specialised services in contracted clinics or QKUK. With mental health laws, it's set forth for 15 thousand citizens to be a psychologist, then I consider that 10 thousand of us are two psychologists, I think we're enough to be”, he added.

Following the request of the Online Economy, Kosovo Police earlier indicated that the number of police officials with more serious health problems is around 120, including uniformised and civilian personnel, the number that could range, classified as separate health cases, due to the serious nature of the disease.