A NSW Police psychologist told a female police officer who sought help after traumatic work incidents that the “best course of stress relief” was to “go home and have sex” with her husband, a court hearing a woman’s police negligence case was told.

“I called him an idiot and I left,” said former Central Coast police officer Joan Raper after describing the Police Employees Assistance Program in 2006 as “useless, completely useless”.

Female police officers (not pictured) have criticised the force's Employees Assistance Program in a court hearing. Credit:Jessica Shapiro

Ms Raper was one of two former Tuggerah Lakes command female officers to criticise the assistance program in evidence after former colleague Melanie Sills, from the Hunter, sued the NSW Police Force for negligence.

Ms Sills was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder in 2006, only three years after joining the service aged 25.