EMOTIONAL SELF-CARE TRAINING (ESC) FOR POLICE OFFICERS

 

 

 

The Badge of Life’s Emotional Self-Care (ESC) police training program is a totally new approach to suicide prevention that “moves the clock back” in the prevention model. 

Each year, we watch as the suicides gradually creep upward.  In 2008, there were 141 police suicides in the United States (O’Hara, Violanti). Preliminary figures by the same authors indicate that suicides in 2009 totalled 143.  With even greater frustration, we see ourselves missing two-thirds of them before they happen, and at a loss to explain the real reasons officers take their own lives. 

 

The important question is not "How many?"  That's easily answered.  The difficult question, one that's avoided by everyone, is "Why?"  Police agencies are not yet ready to share that information.  Because of stigma, it remains a tightly held secret, though we know that surely a percentage of police suicides must be due to work related trauma, PTSD and depression.

 

So what do we do? 

 

The answer is that we need to complete an equation, a formula. Right now, we have one-half of the formula—our suicide prevention programs. These are reactive, and appropriately so, designed to catch an officer at the point of crisis or suicide. 

 

We must fill in the other half of the formula, however, by finding a means of keeping officers from getting into crisis in the first place. This is the Badge of Life’s Emotional Self-Care (ESC) training.  ESC is a “cradle to the grave” program of ongoing education. It begins at the academy and ends at retirement. It focuses on the officer’s role in maintaining good emotional fitness (like physical fitness and health) and does not wait until he is in crisis to help.  It’s goal is to keep the officer from needing the suicide prevention program.

 

The ESC program, it must be emphasized, is not designed to replace conventional suicide prevention programs and peer support programs. They will be needed!  We feel each program is critical to the success of the other. The two must work together.

·    Badge of Life’s ESC training is a career-long educational approach, beginning at the academy, based on the primary principal that “It’s not just about suicide.”  For every police officer who commits suicide in the United States, there are a thousand more suffering either from PTSD or otherwise in pain and distraction from the stresses and traumas of their experiences.

·    The ESC is designed to provide a shield of instructional tools, ongoing, that will keep officers mindful of their responsibility to care of their emotional as well as their physical health, and encourage them to take advantage of annual, voluntary confidential “mental health checks” to a therapist of their choice (no one will know if they go or not) to review their past year, develop their resiliency, and map out new ways.  

·    The ESC goal is to prevent them from ever reaching the suicide prevention system.  The Suicide Prevention Program is still critical because, in the intense and traumatic world of police work, some officers will still encounter problems, become critical and or reach the point of being suicidal.   

No one is more important to a good ongoing mental health program for a department than the peer support officer.  Police chiefs and managers, however, must provide the leadership and example for the peer support officer to succeed..  No longer can they snicker and slip out the door with, “I don’t need any of this.”  Seven police chiefs killed themselves in 2009.  Their officers need them standing in front, talking about their visits to a therapist and some of the problems they’re wrestling with—and not simply pablum.  If they wish to be true role models, this is their true test.

After academy training, officers should have annual training, informally, with a peer support officer and, ideally, a therapist, that includes:

·         The differences between stress and trauma

·         The myths behind mental illness and suicide

·         The value and development of "resilience"

·         Critical and cumulative trauma

·         The "dirty little secrets" of law enforcement

·         The importance of annual, confidential therapy visits.

Resiliency is not a new concept, but it is crucial to officers and their ability to handle the challenges of their work.  Finding an awareness of one’s own resiliency and then developing it with each year is not a “classroom exercise—it’s an individual one best accomplished with a therapist. 

The following are some “resiliency characteristics” developed by the American Psychiatric Association.  To them, we have added “self reliance” (an ability to stand apart from the “pack,”) and “spirituality” (a realization that one is neither alone nor at the center of the universe).

The key to this kingdom is held by the therapist, who can work with the officer as incidents are experienced, reviewed and lessons learned.  Instead of merely saying, "I made it," the past year's experiences are an opportunity to build and grow--and enhance one's resiliency.  There is no better way of ensuring a solid defense against PTSD, or providing an officer the means of recognizing instantly when he is facing its potential.  We have identified the following seven elements as crucial to the development of one's resilience: 

·         Commitment to finding meaningful purpose in life

·         A belief in one’s ability to affect the outcome

·          A belief one can learn and grow as a result

·         Acceptance (particularly the acceptance of what one does not like)

·         Self-reliance

·         Spirituality (which need not be religious)

Finally, the interpretation of resilience should be up to the individual.  This is the seventh and most important step--when the officer makes the determination himself, whether from the above or adding his/her own from the process of growth and self-understanding.

Focusing on resiliency and the ability to both learn and nurture gives a crucial element of hope in a world that officers find threatening and, often secretly, confusing. It also provides them an excellent opportunity to develop this wonderful skill in therapy.  

As a tool for the law enforcement officer, resiliency and its ongoing development is as valuable as one’s ability to pump iron and prowess on the range.

In summary, we believe that, for every police suicide, there are a thousand other officers who continue working while suffering from the inner trauma of years of death, misery and hostility.  We need to broaden our sights from focusing on a very limited number of police suicides and a greater but still limited number of “officers in crisis” and begin developing an emotionally healthy police force that’s ready to face crisis and trauma long before it happens. Only then will we truly address the police suicide problem with finality.

We have shown we can do half the job well.  Let’s add the rest of the formula and finish our work. 

 

 What do we mean by "Annual, voluntary mental health checks?" 

The is a key element of Emotional Self-Care, or "proactive prevention," is focusing on a healthier police force rather than waiting for officers to become troubled or suicidal.

It's a total shift from the traditional focus used in past years.  Therapy, for example, has been something to turn to only when the officer “needs help."  Now, we turn it into a preventive, rather than a reactive tool, much like range practice and other training, designed to keep an officer from harm more than getting him out of it when it's too late.

We believe our programs have to be more than waiting until a "crisis" or suicide arrives.  They must be about long-term mental health for all officers--true prevention.  This includes encouraging officers to seek out and visit a therapist of their choice--through the EAP or privately.  It has to be totally confidential, and the department must do no tracking and require no reporting on whether an officer goes or not.  If an officer doesn’t “trust” anything connected with the department, we encourage them to seek out their own and pay the co-pay. 

The key is in the effectiveness of the training and how serious the department is about wanting a healthy force.  It's how much you truly feel the emotional health of your department matters.  Can you go the next five years without a suicide on a small or mediums sized department?  More than likely, yes.  But can you make a difference in the number of complaints, lawsuits, reckless actions and injuries, disgruntled employees and grievances, alcoholism and divorces, vehicle accidents by distracted officers and much more?

Absolutely.  But only if you care about the overall well-being of your force  and if you're willing to go further than just sitting and waiting to spot someone that's "on the edge."  Sadly, we can point to case after case in which officers committed suicide and the signs went unnoticed.

The ESC program is seen as “empowering,” an element that’s lost (along with cooperation) as soon as one begins to mandate participation.  The intent of training is to make clear that “health” is important—both physical and emotional.  Officers realize that the world is one of choices, good or bad—healthy and unhealthy.  They are always, in an adult world, free to make unhealthy choices.  They need not ever visit the dentist for a cleaning or maintenance.  They can, instead, allow their teeth to rot.  They need not ever get a physical examination—they can even ignore the black mole on their leg and die.  Similarly, they need not do preventive maintenance on their cars or homes—or on their emotional well-being.

It is, truly, a world of choices and must be presented in that manner.