First, we have the establishment of “feelgood”
programs based on little more than hope and pseudoscience. These, such as “Be
Your Buddy’s Keeper” and “awareness programs” have consistently failed while suicide numbers have
risen. Everyone listens, nods, shares a story, learns “the signs”
to watch for in another officer (never will it happen to them) and they are “aware.” Officers leave knowing they should ask for help “if they need it.”
They have no idea what to do before then.
Second is a refusal to accept outcomes. When “awareness” fails, we must do more awareness and more reaching out, whether
the process itself works or not. This is worsened when numbers are self-manipulated
to demonstrate success—for example, speculation as to lives “saved” in spite of increasing number of suicides. Glowing statistics, while they attract support, don’t save lives.
The result of the above is that departments continue doggedly
on, in spite of the results, doing the same things year after year. “We
tried. We must try harder.”
The sad fact is that police suicides do continue to rise. Worse, for every suicide, there are a thousand more officers still working and suffering
from undiagnosed PTSD, depression or other anxiety and stress-related issues. In
the frantic scramble to spot only the suicidal officer, they are missed.
There is a
saying in AA that, “Nothing changes if nothing changes.” If we are
to change the outcome, what do we change?
First, programs must change their primary focus
away from “police suicide” to “police mental health.”
It is not that we are not interested in suicides—but the best way to prevent a suicide is to keep an officer
from becoming suicidal, not wait for him to get there.
Yes, we will continue to need “suicide prevention,”
because there will certainly continue to be officers who become suicidal. The
goal of the “police mental health” approach, however, must be two-fold:
1. Create a
healthy police workforce, emotionally, thereby reducing the likelihood of not only suicides but also PTSD, lawsuits, complaints,
alcoholism, sick leave, physical injuries, accidents, grievances and much more.
2. Prepare officers
to deal with stress and/or trauma (two very different things) before it happens. They
will recognize that trauma and PTSD can happen to them but will be armed with the immediate steps to follow to recognize
the trauma, the importance of dealing with it effectively and will have the resources already identified to do so.
3. Take officers out of the victim role and empower them with career-long self-care programs that
are little different than routine visits to their dentist and doctor.
An example of this kind of proactive training can be found
on our website at Emotional Self-Care Training (ESC).
