SENIOR Pastor of the Waltham Park New Testament Church of God Rev Dr Stevenson Samuels, who noted that Jamaican policemen and women are perhaps more stressed than their colleagues globally, yesterday urged them not to bottle their emotions and become cold. Rather, he said, they should seek help.

“I have served the security forces as a volunteer chaplain. I have been doing this for 15 years and it is a challenging job every day. One of the things I learned is that the average police officer’s stress level, based on the research that was done, is at a much higher level than the average citizen in the country. Can you imagine in Jamaica where the murder rate is one of the highest in the world?” Dr Samuels stated.

He was delivering the main address at a virtual prayer session for the security forces, organised by the 10,000 Men and Families Movement in collaboration with the Ministry of National Security, the Jamaica Constabulary Force, and the Jamaica Defence Force.

“It is as if they are being plundered, it is as if the problems around them are sending their anxiety levels up and up and up. Security officers are in a bad spot, emotionally, I am telling you. We need to pray for them,” Dr Samuels said.

Basing his message on the experience of biblical King David, in First Samuel, whose camp was plundered by enemies who also kidnapped his family members and those of his men, the senior pastor said it was important that law officers find an outlet for their pain.

“We want to say to you, officers, we know the pain is strong, we know that there is not just plunder and problems in your camp, we know the pain is heavy. Sometimes when you are plundered and problems are facing you on every hand, sometimes you know what happens? You get cold and insensitive, not just to the operations that are happening in Jamaica, but to your own feelings, to your heart, to yourself and so your self-care becomes very, very low,” Dr Samuels said.

“You don’t even realise that you are under pain and you are under stress, but we want you to understand officers that if you are feeling the pain, we encourage you to develop emotional intelligence, in other words we want you to become aware, not just physically but the emotional circumstances that you are experiencing. On becoming aware of it, we want you to do something about it,” he told the prayer session.

“We want you to express it; if you have to weep, if you have to holler, if you have to bawl, do something about it, but don’t allow your emotions to be pent up on the inside. And then you need to talk to somebody, talk to a peer counsellor, talk to a chaplain, talk to a pastor; there is a lot of help that you can find,” he pointed out.

He further encouraged law officers to ultimately seek solace and answers in God.

“Let me tell you something, friends, when you are weak an AK47 cannot help you, a Glock pistol cannot help you; when you are in trouble you really need the hand of Almighty God.

“I want to say to this nation and the security officers of Jamaica that God is going to bring us through as a country,” Rev Samuels said.

Data from a 2016 study found that “negative work characteristics, lower levels of positive work factors and work support and emotion-focused coping styles were associated with increased levels of depression” amongst Jamaican police officers. It also said “subjective feelings of anxiety were positively associated with negative work characteristics and emotion-focused coping”. It concluded that “stress management and intervention programmes should address modifiable work conditions, monitor stress levels and reduce maladaptive coping”.

Yesterday, Commissioner of Police Major General Antony Anderson, in his remarks, noted the role played by religious organisations in trying to address the island’s crime problem which he said has taken on an intergenerational flavour.

“A lot of them learnt it from their parents and grandparents, and when you have been in as long as I have and certainly our pastors on the platform would have been counselling and reaching out for many years, and yet they persist. But we still have to work at it every day, engaging our young people and, as the police force providing that service to our population to ensure as best as we can that there is a measure of safety for our people,” he stated.