Andrew 'Atto' Atkinson never wanted to go on leave, he loved Policing that much. Atto spent 16 of his 28yr career working at the Technical Surveillance Unit, watching & following our most dangerous criminals, creeping into their houses to install listening devices with him & his colleagues risking their lives at every job.
During his career, Atto undertook a number of international secondments with United Nations to East Timor & Iraq. During his East Timor secondment in 2001 Atto was stabbed & in early 2002 he was diagnosed with PTSI. Atto lived in denial & was deployed to Iraq in 2004 & back to East Timor in 2006. Admitting or even thinking about having been diagnosed with a mental illness wasn’t an option & as unwell as Atto was, his panacea was his work – he loved just about every minute of it. He breathed it, cherished it, valued it & couldn’t get enough of it until 2019 when Atto found the courage to face the fact, he was very mentally unwell. Atto has endured some tough times since 2019, including being diagnosed with epilepsy, but then he met Sophie & she has changed his world.
Support Services include:
Police Veterans Victoria e: contact@policeveteransvic.org.au
BeyondBlue: 1300 224 636
Lifeline: 131 114
The Black Dog Institute Clinic 02 9382 2991 or Reception (02) 9382 4530 e: clinic@blackdog.org.au
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