Mental welfare is neglected because police are perceived to be strong, unflappable, unshakable. This can, and must, be fixed
I’ve always been a large person. I’m 195cm tall and weigh 130 kilos, although at my largest I was over 160kg. I have represented Australia in track and field; I bobsledded for the country at the 1992 Winter Olympics; I played football for the University of Hawaii. In 1997, I was declared Australia’s strongest man. I could single-handedly pull a 201-tonne steam train.
But physical strength and mental health strength are vastly different. And after decades spent rising through the ranks of the Australian police force – fighting online child exploitation, serving as an officer in Afghanistan, having my compound attacked by the Taliban, and an aeroplane targeted by a missile – it was my mental illness that almost took my life. Suicide, I thought, was my way out.
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