Mental Health in Law Enforcement

While a single traumatic or critical incident can immediately impact an officer’s mental well-being, the cumulative effect of long-term exposure to high-stress situations, emotional strain, and repeated trauma can be just as damaging.

Common mental health issues in law enforcement include:

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• Good sources of vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre.
• Can help reduce the risk of injury and illness.

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• Good source of slow release energy to fuel training and aid recovery.

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• Energy needs will be higher when activity levels are high.

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• Good source of protein and calcium that are important for healthy bones levels are high.

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• Helps growth and repair of muscle.

While the physical and mental risks of policing are part of the job, agencies can play an important role in ensuring the long-term mental and physical wellness of their officers.

Here are four key steps that law enforcement agencies can take to provide better mental health support for police officers:

1. Implement Confidential Counseling Services

While attitudes around mental wellness are changing, it is still common for officers to be hesitant to reach out for help. To ensure all officers receive support despite this hesitancy, agencies can provide access to confidential counseling services and other resources that can be accessed anonymously. However, to be effective, the support needs to come from a culturally competent sourceexperienced with law enforcement that has undergone specialty training.

Different areas of the country will have varying access to resources, but checking with other local agencies, reaching out to certifying organizations, and reviewing online resources can help get you started.

2. Establish A Peer Support Program

Regardless of a professional’s experience, no one understands the experiences of law enforcement better than fellow officers. As shared by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, many officers feel more comfortable seeking support from their peers, and peer support programs have proven to be effective in supporting mental well-being and reducing the rates of officer suicide.
By establishing a formal peer support program, agencies provide officers with a trusted, easy-to-access resource, making it much easier to seek help, especially if they are in crisis. Additionally, having formalized programs and policies help reduce the stigma around mental health in law enforcement and normalizes discussions around these sensitive topics.

3. Provide Regular Mental Health Training and Education

Disproving misinformation and providing training opportunities are essential steps in shifting the culture around mental health, especially when past attitudes have been largely negative or dismissive.

In-person workshops, online training, reference material, and other educational resources are all powerful tools to provide officers with the knowledge they need to successfully navigate the risks they face. In those instances where officers are not engaging on their own, leadership can make these educational opportunities mandatory or encourage participation by attending themselves.

4. Create Clear Mental Health Policies and Procedures

While law enforcement can be unpredictable, agencies should still strive to be as proactive as possible. Establishing behavioral health programs and procedures that prioritize follow-ups from peer support, critical incident stress debriefings, and other measures can lead to better outcomes and help minimize short and long-term effects on officers. Being transparent about these procedures and the available resources for officers to access can make a significant difference for someone in crisis.

Once programs, policies, and resources are made available, it’s easy to think that the job is done. However, to be truly effective, there are three key items every agency needs to prioritize:

1. Leading by Example

If leadership isn’t engaged, officers won’t be either. To be successful, leaders must also engage with every program, policy, and resource being offered to their officers. A patrol officer is much more likely to attend a optional training session on mental reslience if they see their chief is planning to attend. The same can be said for utilizing counseling services, employee assistance programs, and peer support programs.

By taking their own mental health seriously, agency leadership can set the right example for their officers and encourage an environment where these topics are treated wit the same importance as physical health and operational readiness.

2. Evaluate Effectiveness and Make Change as Necessary

Like with any other program, it’s important to evaluate the effectiveness of mental health initiatives to ensure they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing. A program that isn’t producing results could not only sour officers towards mental health initiatives in general but also prevent officers who need help from getting it in those critical moments.

Agencies should regularly gather feedback from officers, track usage rates, and analyze key outcomes such as reductions in absenteeism or disciplinary actions. Officers may be hesitant to provide feedback in a group setting for similar reasons to their hesitancy to reach out for help. Instead, offer anonymous surveys to gather valuable insights and ensure every officer is providing their honest opinion on the support services your agency provides.

In addition to analyzing data and feedback from within the agency, leaders can also partner with mental health professionals to identify areas that might be lacking or new opportunities that may not be readily apparent to those without the relevant training or credentials.

3. Promote Accountability

While it’s impossible to truly know what’s going on in another person’s head, there are symptoms and signs of mental illness that are readily apparent to observers. For this reason, agencies should provide education on these signs and encourage officers to look out for one another. In doing so, agency personnel can be the first line of defense in preventing irreparable harm to an officer’s health or career as a result of mental illness.

Agencies should also make it clear that mental health is just as much of a priority as physical health. In doing so, agencies can create an environment where mental health is considered a shared responsibility, communication about mental wellness is normalized, and no officer feels isolated in their struggles.

Creating and maintaining a comprehensive law enforcement officer wellness program is a significant undertaking, but the right technology can simplify the process.

Guardian Tracking, an early intervention and conduct management system, helps law enforcement agencies proactively identify officers in need of support, boost morale with positive recognition, and ensure proper follow-up procedures occur following a critical incident.

Vector also offers tools to simplify and streamline delivering, tracking, and reporting on online and in-person training on mental health, making it easy to ensure officers are provided with the training they need to maintain mental wellness despite the challenges of policing.

Vector’s catalog of online training for law enforcement also includes courses designed to educate officers and leaders about mental health risks and promote resilience.

Request a demo today and explore how Vector Solutions helps agencies support mental health in law enforcement.