The equipt app is a free mental health and wellbeing tool developed in partnership with The Police Association of Victoria (TPAV) and Victoria Police. It is designed to support the mental health and overall wellbeing of police officers, both current and former, as well as their families.

The app features Lifestyle tools to encourage healthy habits, Rapid Response Tool with strategies to manage immediate stress, a Call Back-Up Feature providing direct access to mental health support and the MyShift Tool with personalised recommendations tailored to an individual's work schedule in the context of shift work. Since its launch in 2016, the app has been downloaded over 50,000 times across Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Police officers face a significantly higher risk of developing mental health conditions due to repeated trauma exposure, irregular work hours, and high-pressure environments. Research shows that mental health conditions are more than twice as common among police officers when compared to the general population.

equipt was developed in direct response to the Victorian Police Mental Health Review in 2016, which called for cultural change and improvements to mental health support services for police.

It was critical that the solution be developed with privacy at the forefront, serving as both an effective and a trusted tool for police. This was imperative as the 2016 Review also found that members were often reluctant to seek help due to a fear of detrimental impact on career prospects.

Utility Creative worked closely with TPAV and Victoria Police to ensure equipt met the unique needs of police officers.

Built for police, by police, the app was co-designed with input from officers and subject matter experts, including the University of Melbourne, the Phoenix Australia Centre for Post Traumatic Mental Health and the Institute for Breathing and Sleep.

Using Ottawa Charter principles, the development team engaged with 12 focus groups of 10 police members each, collecting over 120 hours of valuable insights. These important contributions alongside valuable insights from TPAV led to the creation of the first iteration of the app.

equipt was launched by former Police Minister Lisa Neville, alongside former Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton and former Police Association Secretary Ron Iddles on the 20th of September in 2016. The app was an immediate success, attracting over 4,000 downloads within the first 3 months of launch.

In 2020, Utility Creative designed and released a refreshed version of the app, which included a complete design overhaul and the addition of the MyShift tool to meet the evolving needs of the modern police force.

Most recently, in 2025 a visually refreshed equipt 2.0 launched by the Victorian Police Acting Chief Commissioner Rick Nugent, Chief Executive Officer of TPAV Wayne Gatt and members of the TPAV Wellbeing Team at the Werribee Police Complex. This announcement was a direct outcome of over 1,000 hours of work from TPAV and over 240 hours contributed by Victorian Police members.

equipt is free to download for all police officers, both current and former, as well as their families, in all Australian states and territories, and New Zealand, with a region-specific version also available in Canada, developed in collaboration with the Canadian Police Association.

Angela Smith, (former) President of the Australian Federal Police Association

Peter Thomas, Queensland Police Union of Employees, North Queensland, Australia