A year after PSP director Luís Farinha highlighted the scourge of suicides within the service, the ministries of finance and internal administration have released €756,000 to be spent over the next three years in the hiring of “more psychologists”.
The idea, explains national tabloid Correio da Manhã, is that these psychologists will be able to ‘accompany’ agents that might otherwise resort to taking their own lives.
Reacting to the plan, union boss Peixoto Rodrigues has said that it may be positive in that more money is being made available, but it will not “resolve the real problems for suicides in the PSP” which, he claims, are low pay and unpopular transfers.
In 2015, there were a total of 12 suicides in the PSP and GNR services: seven in the PSP and five in the GNR.
It was considered a “very black year” and thus prompted to calls from Luís Farinha for action.
Suicide figures for 2016 have yet to become available.
