Quincy Police Department issued the following announcement on Dec. 13.
The Quincy Police Department is working towards implementing a Peer Support Program within their agency. Peer support among first responders is not a new concept and has been commonplace in larger metropolitan areas for several years. In these areas there are usually teams of officers who respond to assist other agencies with crisis intervention after a critical incident and with peer support for individual officers who are struggling with a personal crisis. It has been a concept the Quincy Police Administration has looked into for the past two years, but being in a rural area without another large agency nearby to partner with, it has taken some time to put a program together. Now that we know how to get our program started, we need to find funding to pay for the training protocol, certifications, and the facilitators of the training.
According to one study by the Ruderman Family Foundation, in 2017 there were 140 police officers who died by suicide and 129 officers who died in the line of duty. Suicide rates are typically underreported and some think the rate is as much as 2:1 officer suicides verses line of duty deaths.
There are many reasons officers are suffering from depression and turn to suicide as an answer. One is that officers face violence and horrific sights that the average person is never exposed to. They deal with these things almost every day of their career. Given the number of critical incidents an officer witnesses, it would be abnormal for them not to have symptoms of post traumatic stress. Other reason officers suffer in silence and don’t ask for help is the culture of law enforcement. Officers are trained to be in control of situations and it’s a foreign concept for them when they feel like they are losing control. They fear if they are seen as weak and unable to fix themselves that they may lose their career.
It’s only been recently that society has started talking about suicide, depression, and mental illness for what it really is, and that is an illness. A person does not choose to have a mental illness any more than they choose to have heart disease or cancer. If an illness goes undiagnosed and untreated, it will only get worse and ultimately cost you your life.
In 2012, the Buffalo Cardio-metabolic Occupational Police Stress study among police officers found the PTSD prevalence rate is five times as high as the rate in the civilian population. Studies such as this are the number one reason the Quincy Police Department has chosen to work with The Warriors Rest Foundation (https://www.warriorsrestfoundation.org) to start a peer support program. Warriors Rest is based out of Oklahoma City, OK and has been assisting agencies with the development of peer support teams to help law enforcement personnel prepare for and respond to the effects of critical incidents. They follow the curriculum set by the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation that is called Critical Incident Stress Management. CISM is a method of helping first responders and others who have been involved in critical incidents that leave them emotionally and/or physically affected by those incidents. CISM is a process that enables peers to help their peers understand problems that might occur after an event.
The peer team leader will be chosen by Chief Rob Copley and the department command staff; they then, along with the team leader, will choose the team members who will attend the five day training. It would be very expensive to send 6 or 7 team members out of town to this training. Rather than pay the travel and room and board costs for that many officers, in addition to the cost of the training, we feel it would be more feasible to bring the Warrior Rest instructors to Quincy. We plan to partner with some local businesses, hotels, and community leaders to offset the costs associated with bringing this important training to our city. Once we secure the funding needed, we plan to reach out to other downstate agencies who are interested in starting a peer program to see if they would like to attend our training. We would be able to split the costs of the instructors and training facilities with these agencies.
To ensure that our officers can continue to serve the members of our community, we must take care of their health and welfare. If you are want to learn how you can help local law enforcement help themselves, or are interested in learning more about this program, feel free to contact Lt. Kathy Schisler at 217-228-4470 or email her at kschisler@quincyil.gov.
Original source can be found here.
Source: Quincy Police Department
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