Police and work

[itsrainin]

Hi, I work in a public facing role. one of the service users is going through something horrible to the extent I had to involve the police who dealt with it as an emergency. I just can’t switch off now I’m home. Keep replaying what she was saying in my head and how she has normalised the worst things, and wondering if she’s okay. The police can’t update me of course.

If anyone has had to deal with similar before please post - how do you take your mind off it? It’s my day off today but I reckon I’ll be thinking of this!

Hi OP. Sometimes it helps to “offload” to someone else to get it out of your head- do you have someone to do that with, or maybe in here- failing all else the Samaritans are good at that.

otherwise just remember you did all you could to help, and carrying this around won’t help her so just try to let it go.

@Keepingthingsinteresting thank you. Basically the situation is she disclosed severe DV and was hesitant to contact the police, but indicated an urgent risk to her life so they needed to be informed. I am a bit worried about what her reaction was when the police made contact but she really did need to escape it.

Talk it through. Failing that write it all down (and then immediately delete of burn it).

Then keep busy doing a ‘mindless’ task that is enough for your brain to concentrate on but not having to force yourself to concentrate on. Eg ironing or colouring. I find it helps to ‘reset’ my mental state and put things into a better perspective. Trauma hits everyone differently, just remember that you did the right things and in the right way and now the right people are following through because of you!

You need to talk about it. It's completely normal and understandable to carry stuff like this . It's about finding a way to let it go. Do you have supervision in your job roke?