Suicide is the #1 cause of death for police officers every year. An estimated 120,00 officers work every day with symptoms of PTSD. Only 3% of agencies have a suicide prevention/awareness program. Most agencies do not have a Peer Support team or a Wellness Program to promote emotional survival. With over 900n hours of police academy training in CA, at most 2-4 hours are typically devoted to emotional survival.
Officers distressed with PTSD and emotional suffering are incapable of providing effective professional service to the community. Well-trained and emotionally healthy officers provide the best chance to preserve the safety of our communities.
Learning Objectives: Introduction to Emotional Survival Training/Wellness Programs- learn how essential it is to work proactively to develop emotional survival practices, learn the definition of “wellness in spirit”, learn how and why the health and wellness of one’s spirit is the foundation of mental, emotional and physical health.
Mental and Emotional Health of Officers- Overview; Statistics: Learn that 2-3 times more officers kill themselves than are murdered. Suicide is the #1 cause of death annually for LE, learn that 120,000 officers have symptoms of PTSD, officers are twice as likely to become alcoholics, 15-20% have serious addictions, 40% have serious sleep disorders, 25-30% have stressed based health problems. Learn how inherently the job adversely affects other officers’ health, wellness, relationships and quality of personal and professional lives.
Warning Signs: Self Awareness-
Learn the 9 warning signs that one’s spirit is suffering/difficulty processing stress, learn effective methods of becoming self-aware of how the job is adversely affecting one’s spirit.
Emotional Survival Lessons; Hyper-vigilance- Become familiar with several emotional survival lessons from officers from an in-depth university study, learn the definition of hyper-vigilance, learn to identify signs and symptoms of hyper-vigilance, learn to overcome hyper-vigilance symptoms.
Emotional Survival Practices- Learn 28 proactive emotional survival and wellness practices and become familiar with how they help to heal, protect and nurture the wellness of one’s spirit.
PTSD- Learn the definition, signs and symptoms of PTSD, PTSD questionnaire, become familiar with effective treatments for PTSD.
Peer Support- Become familiar with functions and purpose of a Peer Support team, learn the value of an effective Peer Support team, learn how to establish and maintain a Peer Support team, learn about effective Chaplain services as part of a Peer Support team.