Why Mental Health Support for First Responders Starts with Us
Peer Support Programs are one of the leading efforts in improving police officer access to mental health care. These programs don’t leave officers’ mental healthcare to chance, and act as a mental healthcare ‘safety net’, helping officers avoid reaching their breaking point and a mental health crisis.
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TL;DR Peer support programs train officers to help their peers identify the warning signs of building mental load and help their internal team members while reducing the stiga around mental health internally, helping officers access care when they need it, reducing officer burnout, and mitigating the risk of psychopatholgies after exposure to trauma.
Why is there a Need for Peer Support Programs in Policing
Most police officers, if not all, recognize how essential mental healthcare is for daily well-being. Heck, they are the ones who are most exposed to the consequences of mental illness and see firsthand the pain of suicides, violence, altered states, accidents, and tragedies, that can occur if a person reaches a mental health crisis.
There is no one-size-fits-all personality type to describe a police officer, but according to Police Quarterly two of the most common characteristics of people who decide to pursue a career in policing are:
- High levels of conscientiousness: Organized, Responsible, and Dependable
- Strong sense of duty: A strong sense of responsibility to keep people safe and maintain order, even in difficult or dangerous situations.
Essentially, and if you’re an officer, you’ll know this: officers take pride in being the people we can count on. This pride encourages a culture of camradery and mental toughness, which forges the “we can get back out there again tomorrow’ attitude.
That resilience is essential to creating a culture of strength and giving the general public a sense of security, knowing they can depend on the officers in their community to protect them, assist them in crisis situations, and maintain the peace.
As is the case with all characteristics, this culture of resilience can sometimes have a dark side, and the intrinsic and extrinsic pressures to ‘stay tough’, can make it hard for officers to know when and how to ask for help.
Sometimes, wearing the armor of sarcasm and deflection as tightly as the uniform can lead to forgetting that you are a person who deserves care too.
The pressure to stay resilient, outwardly calm, and dependable can make it difficult to know when and how to ask for help.
Chief Burke shares that even though he had always understood the mental load the nature of first responder work brought, it wasn’t until he was training other officers for leadership roles that he realized the need for more systematic safeguards to help officers manage these mental demands.
Burke and his South Burlington Police Department are one of the many Vermont agencies now implementing a Peer Support Program and receive the support they need to process critical incident stress and feel comfortable with their mental regulatory toolkit.
Key Components of Peer Support Training
Peer support services for police officers aim to promote mental health and well-being, reduce stigma around mental health issues, and improve the overall culture of policing.
As its name might suggest, select officers, are trained and elected to act as Peer Support Officers in their individual organizations or department.
The specialty training reviews the warning signs of increasing mental stress, how it can present on and off the job, and different communication approaches to check in with their peers.
In addition to training internal peer support officers, the VCRW Peer Support program helps your organization establish clear networks and options for acute and long term therapist
Benefits of Peer Support Training
Using a peer support program for your police department can:
- Lower the internal stigma around accessing mental healthcare
- Increase department awareness of critical incident stress load
- Help individuals create mental regulation toolkits to improve daily stress tolerance
- Increase awareness of mental health risks and resources in responder daily activities
- Reduce officer burnout and help officer retention
- Improve personal welbeing
- Help Officers better responder to the increasing mental health crises in America today