Rising Mental Health Claims Among Tasmanian Police Officers
More than 100 Tasmanian police officers are currently off duty due to mental health compensation claims, a figure that has doubled over the past five years. As of February 28, 2026, there were 146 open mental health claims for police officers, with 102 of them entirely off work. This situation highlights a growing concern within the Tasmanian police force and reflects a national trend affecting law enforcement across all states and territories.
Shane Tilley, president of the Police Association of Tasmania, noted that since he took over in 2023, the number of officers on mental health claims has increased by 7%. He described the situation as very concerning, not only because it places additional pressure on those still working but also because it indicates a higher number of officers who are unwell and in need of support.
Tilley emphasized that while this issue is specific to Tasmania, it is part of a broader challenge faced by police forces nationwide. “We need to do something about it, it’s about trying to retain and recruit people and keep them in the job and not break them,” he said.
Alan Beckley, an honorary professor at the University of Technology Sydney and a former UK police officer, has conducted extensive research on the mental health of police officers. He was not surprised by the Tasmanian statistics, stating that tackling mental health issues in policing requires a comprehensive approach from the top down. “People have got to be retrained to deal with it,” he said.
His latest paper examined rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. The study found that increased distress levels, poor sleep quality, hazardous drinking patterns, exposure to trauma, and specific work conditions are significantly associated with heightened PTSD risk.
In 2023, a Tasmanian coroner investigated the suicides of four police officers and recommended that Tasmania Police conduct mandatory six-monthly wellbeing screenings for PTSD. However, the ABC revealed that these checks are not being carried out. Dr. Beckley argued that such a program would be beneficial if fully integrated into the processes and made mandatory.
Mr. Tilley added that more funding is needed to implement these wellness checks. “The community would fully support six-to-12-month welfare checks on members; it takes strong people to have the conversation and to convince people like those that sit in Treasury that this is a great idea.”
Tasmania Police has other measures in place, such as a Wellbeing Support unit, which conducts checks for officers in high-exposure areas. The workers’ compensation team was incorporated into the unit in 2022 to align person-centric models with workers’ compensation practices.
Another form of support is the Critical Incident Stress Management Program, automatically put in place for all individuals involved in critical incidents. There are also over 80 psychologists and allied health professionals contracted to provide services to police officers.
Tilley believes Tasmania’s welfare and support system is one of the best in the country. “I actually engage with them for quite a period of time; I was going through a little bit of a dark time… I’ve been an advocate for it since because it brought me back into the right headspace.”
However, he acknowledged that some officers might still be slipping through the cracks. “It’s difficult to know… everyone’s journey is different. When you have a workforce that is stressed through vacancies, through workers’ compensation, illnesses and all the rest of it, the workload doesn’t disappear, it’s just the worker that disappears for one reason or another.”
Impact of Compensation Changes on Mental Health Claims
In 2019, workers’ compensation laws in Tasmania were amended to automatically presume that PTSD is work-related for the purposes of a compensation claim. This change also exempted police officers injured during front-line duty from a decrease in weekly benefit payments after set periods of time.
Mr. Tilley believes these changes have made officers feel more comfortable filing claims. “There is a really, really good argument that police officers generally hid a lot of their sickness and a lot of their demons,” he said. “My personal view is that I think that police in general were more prepared to put their hand up and say, ‘Hey, I’m not well, I need some help and use those services,’ and also knew that they weren’t going to lose salary by doing that.”
Tasmania Police falls under the Department of Police, Fire and Emergency Management (DPFEM), which saw 229 insurance claims in 2024-25, resulting in a gross incurred cost of $13,757,293. These claims include both physical and mental health issues and cover police officers, firefighters, SES staff, and state service employees.
| Year | Insurance Claims | Gross Incurred Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | 198 | $11.24m |
| 2023-24 | 220 | $10.77m |
| 2024-25 | 229 | $13.75m |
In the 2025-26 Revised Estimates Report, an additional $60 million was allocated for the Department of Police, Fire and Emergency Management to meet workers’ compensation premiums.
“We spend millions of dollars a year separating members from emergency services, police services, because they’re unwell,” Mr. Tilley said. “Let’s work on bringing that back so that some of that money can be used to do well-being checks on our members.”
