Officer Wellness
Upholding the safety and wellness of officers is of the utmost importance. While many strategies for promoting officer wellness involve the safe and effective use of physical equipment (such as seat belts and body armor) in addition to policies, procedures, and protocol aimed at reducing risks of physical injury, this article is focused upon the importance of emotional wellness and wellbeing for officers.
Officers are exposed to a myriad of stressors as they carry out complex tasks and challenging assignments in the face of demands that can be extreme in nature. When required to absorb work-related stressors quickly, or without time to emotionally decompress, officers can be faced with the distinct challenge of setting aside or compartmentalizing one stressful experience as they address other more urgent matters. If repeated again and again, this can reinforce a process of not addressing the emotional aspects of stressful events in a direct manner, while also increasing the cumulative demands placed upon an officer over time.
“As much as we focus on the tangible safety measures that we want for our officers, you cannot negate the impact that this very stressful profession has on the overall well-being of our officers. Policing has increasingly become more complex, and our officers are not only constantly exposed to situations that are traumatic and demanding, but they are also often expected to move immediately from one stressful event to another.”
– Terrence M. Cunningham, Chief of Police, Wellesley, Massachusetts, Police Department (from the May 2016 issue of Police Chief Magazine)
In addition to the dangers and stressors inherent in the nature of law enforcement work, officers must also navigate the challenges of increasing societal expectations, departmental politics, interpersonal relationships, financial stressors, and all of the other routine demands of life. On top of all of this, officers can be faced with traumatic events in the course of their work that, depending upon a variety of factors, carry the potential to magnify the stress response and disrupt coping, thus undermining wellness and lessening the ability to effectively manage future demands.
Fortunately, stress is a function of not only environmental demands, but also one’s ability to deal with those demands, and there are many available tools, resources, and best practices to help promote emotional wellness and effectively manage stress. Perhaps the most important steps are acknowledging that officer emotional wellness must be prioritized, supporting programs for bolstering emotional wellness, and promoting a law enforcement culture that recognizes, encourages, and reinforces the utilization of such important resources.
Strategies for Utilizing the Officer Wellness Tools
Many effective tools are available to help strengthen and uphold the emotional wellness and wellbeing of officers. The best strategies for utilizing the wellness tools for officers include:
Take the tools that work for you and leave the rest
Familiarize yourself with as many tools and resources as possible, then take the tools that work for you and leave the rest. Develop strong proficiency with a core set of wellness practices rather than attempting to master everything.
Incorporate wellness behaviors into your life on a daily basis
Practice foundation-level wellness behaviors (such as deep breathing or muscle relaxation) to strengthen your proficiency with these tools. This will help to promote your wellness on a daily basis, while also strengthening your resiliency.
Different tools are better for different needs and situations
Appreciate that different tools are appropriate to different needs and situations. For example, some officers find they achieve their greatest stress-reduction benefits from mindfulness and meditation practices, whereas other prefer regular cardiovascular exercise. Every officer is unique.
Sharing what works for you can help strengthen the wellness of other officers
Consider sharing the tools that work for you so that other officers may benefit, while appreciating that different people benefit from different approaches to wellness. Sharing what works for you can help to bolster the wellness of other officers.
Leverage your strengths in your daily wellness practice
Build upon your strengths. For example, if you are good at keeping a routine, leverage that strength to build more wellness practices into your daily life. Or, if you are more spontaneous, create a set of wellness-based activities that you can engage in at different times, according to your preferences.
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Stress Management
Law enforcement work exposes officers to a unique set of pressures, stressors, and demands. Over time, as stressors accumulate, it becomes increasingly important to manage stressors effectively to avoid fatigue, burnout, and the more serious consequences associated with prolonged stress exposure. Fortunately, the toolkit for managing stress is stocked with brief, simple, and effective techniques. This article provides an overview of some of the most effective stress management strategies.
Behavioral Health Tools
Well-known healthy behaviors that have been repeatedly linked to improved health and increased lifespan include 1) not smoking, 2) exercising regularly, 3) avoiding or limiting alcohol use, 4) getting 7 or more hours of sleep, and 5) maintaining a healthy weight. However, these behaviors are easier to list than to follow. Only 6% of Americans report following all five of these healthy habits, and only 35% engage in even three of these behaviors consistently.
Work-Life Balance
Developing a healthy work-life balance can be a difficult task—indeed, some may find themselves distressed by the sense of guilt that they are failing at balance, adding to stress from being busy at work. It can then become easy to feel pulled in opposite directions—trying to perform successfully at work, but also trying to devote quality time to family, friends, or valued activities. This article provides some guidelines for trying to manage this balance.
Healthy Habits
Many of our day-to-day actions, both at work and in our personal lives, are defined by our habits, those familiar routines and ingrained behaviors that we execute with little or no conscious thought. This article outlines a research-based approach for identifying the underlying mechanisms that drive existing habits, and a process for engineering positive and health habits to replace unhealthy routines.
Resilience Development
Resilience refers to the ability to respond effectively following adversities, and to persist, rather than giving up, after setbacks. These characteristics are not unchanging traits, but are skills that can be developed and strengthened with deliberate practice and repetition across time. This article discusses a number of steps that you can take to become a more resilient person.
Emotional Health
This article presents a variety of emotional health strategies aimed at helping to increase positive emotions and effectively manage negative emotions. Specific emotional health strategies discussed in this article emphasize feeling clear-headed, confident, and focused; feeling calm; enhancing optimism; increasing frustration tolerance; and increasing gratitude.
Relationship Success
Having an intimate, loving relationship is among the most important desires for many people, and when couples experience relationship distress, it can cloud nearly every minute of the day. Couples can have difficulties for numerous reasons, but most involve one of a few basic categories that are reviewed in this article along with effective strategies that can be used to improve and enhance your relationship.
Sleep Optimization
Many areas of human functioning are impacted by insufficient sleep. Cognitive abilities including attention, concentration, and learning efficiency are impaired following even a single night of sleep restriction. Emotional effects of sleep deprivation include increased irritability, negative mood, and stronger emotional reactivity to stressors. Physically, sleep deprivation is associated with increased lethargy, feelings of fatigue, and reduced energy, with reduced ability to persist at tasks. This article discusses strategies for optimizing your sleep.
Anger Management
While nearly everyone experiences anger at times, anger can be problematic if it occurs too easily, too intensely, in inappropriate situations, or is poorly controlled. If you believe, or have been told by others, that you may become physically aggressive because of your anger, the best response would be to make an appointment with EAP or with a behavioral health professional. This article reviews a set of strategies that can be utilized to help manage anger.
Self-Care
The work of law enforcement and other first responders is extraordinarily stressful, and it is unreasonable to expect that one should be able to somehow withstand the chronic and acute stressors, pressures, and demands of this work without utilizing tools and habits that enable your own personal needs to be met in a healthy and reliable manner. Caring for yourself is critically important and must be prioritized. The article entitled Self-Care Checklists provides three checklists of effective self-care behaviors and strategies that you may wish to consider implementing in your own life.
Trauma and PTSD
Law enforcement and other first responders are frequently exposed to events that many people would consider to be extreme or traumatic in nature. Some traumatic experiences occur suddenly, while other times first responders are faced with cumulative or prolonged exposure to trauma (such as when working long-term in special assignments that involve repeated exposure to disturbing imagery, victimization of children, or loss of life). Not every traumatized person develops ongoing (chronic) or even short-term (acute) PTSD. It is important to receive support following trauma, and to received treatment for PTSD. The articles on Trauma and PTSD provide important information and resources pertaining to these issues.
Suicide Prevention
Law enforcement officers are amongst the highest risk occupational classifications for suicide. If you are in suicidal crisis, there are options available to help and immediate support is available at 1-800-273-8255. If you know someone who appears to be at immediate or imminent risk for suicide, you should treat the matter as an emergency, call 911, and stay with the person in a safe place until additional help arrives. If you are concerned about a co-worker who may be at risk for suicide, you can contact the Cordico EAP 24/7 line (1-800-898-0585) for support and guidance. You can also utilize the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255) to discuss your concerns and seek support and advice. The article on Suicide Prevention provides additional detailed information on topics including suicide warning signs, risk factors, and guidance on how to help someone who may be at risk for suicide.
Critical Incidents
The Cordico Critical Incident Team is available upon request to assist and support YCPARMIA agencies with critical incidents – those stressors so extreme as to temporarily outweigh the coping skills of an individual, group, or team. Depending upon important variables, ideal responses may include resource deployment, focused one-on-one support, mental health triaging, rapid EAP involvement, team defusing, or debriefing, as well as access to follow-up support resources.
Specialized Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
The Cordico Specialized EAP was designed from the ground up to meet the specific needs of first responders and other public safety workers. The program is extremely easy to access, flexible, and strictly confidential. All YCPARMIA-agency officers and other first responders are allotted up to 14 free therapy sessions per year through this program. Most importantly, the Cordico Specialized EAP is staffed with carefully selected and highly skilled therapists who share a strong commitment to helping those dedicated to the service of others. If you need immediate emotional support or would like to request a referral to an EAP therapist, the Cordico EAP phone number is 1-800-898-0585. The Cordico EAP phone line is available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year.
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