Policing is considered one of the most stressful occupations in the world, with law enforcement officers regularly facing a wide range of stress factors. Realities of the job include operational stress such as exposure to critical and traumatic events, investigating criminal incidents, enforcing traffic violations, and responding to vehicle crashes and calls for service.
Officers also face organizational stressors such as administrative burden, pressure from supervisors, shift work, and sleep deprivation. The culmination of operational and organizational stress often contributes to personal stressors, which can include familial and relationship challenges, as well as poor work-life balance.
In recent years, law enforcement professionals have begun to more openly discuss the impact that policing can have on an officer’s mental health and wellness, leading to a need for resources and training to assist both active and retired officers in managing stress and trauma. The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), with funding and support from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center (Penn), has developed resilience training tailored specifically to the unique needs of law enforcement.
Resilience
Resilience skills can help to provide protection from various mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety, that can interfere with job performance. Teaching resilience skills to law enforcement personnel can enhance their well-being at home and increase their effectiveness at work. Skills acquired through resilience training can help officers cope with the stress they face on a daily basis, both on duty and off.
Partnership
Since 2017, the IACP has worked closely with Penn, a leading provider of resilience training for the military, state and local government agencies, corporations, and educational institutions. The Penn Resilience Program (PRP) has demonstrated effectiveness in reducing negative life factors such as symptoms of depression and anxiety, mental health and substance abuse diagnoses, and hopelessness and, in turn, has improved positive life factors such as well-being, satisfaction, optimism, and hope.
Training Development and Delivery
Building upon the PRP foundation, Penn and IACP sought to adapt effective resilience skills that are most relevant to the stressors and situations that law enforcement professionals encounter. Early in the process of developing the curriculum, the IACP convened an advisory group to guide and oversee modifications and enhancements. In addition, Penn and IACP traveled to three resilience training pilot sites to better understand the stressors commonly faced by law enforcement. Agencies included were the Norfolk, Virginia, Police Department; the Lincoln, Nebraska, Police Department; and the South Dakota Highway Patrol. While each agency varies in size and location, and faces their own unique challenges, many of the identified stressors were common among the personnel across the three sites.
A total of 107 officers of varying ranks from across the pilot sites attended the three-day law enforcement resilience training. After each training delivery, participants were encouraged to provide feedback on the training content, so that Penn and IACP could incorporate the feedback to enhance the quality and applicability of the training. The training includes a set of empirically validated skills that have been shown to decrease anxiety and depression, while also increasing optimism and well-being. The training divides skills into three common themes:
1. Mind skills that focus on how to harness thinking to drive productive emotions and reactions. For example, officers learn skills to identify and avoid “thinking traps,” which can interfere with work and personal relationships.
2. Energy skills that focus on how to regulate energy and maintain vitality. For example, these skills include building positive emotions, reducing the fight-or-flight response, and engaging in activities outside of work that contribute to a sense of well-being.
3. Connection skills that focus on how to strengthen relationships, both at work and at home, through effective communication strategies. For example, officers learn how to create trust and a sense of belonging during difficult conversations, as well as learning a communication model for enhancing connections when discussing positive experiences.
In November 2019, each pilot site sent officers to attend a four-day train-the-trainer course at IACP headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. Through this course, the project team will begin to develop a cadre of law enforcement resilience trainers who will help to fashion more resilient agencies and officers by delivering the training to law enforcement across the United States.
The Future of Resilience Training in Law Enforcement
With the pilot phase complete, the IACP is working with BJA and Penn to expand delivery of the training program. The team is in the process of identifying U.S. law enforcement agencies interested in serving as resilience training hubs. The ultimate goal of delivering this training to the field is to equip law enforcement professionals with the skills necessary to manage the heavy stress loads they face daily, which can result in high rates of officer suicide, depression, and other mental health problems and have myriad effects on their families. By creating regional training hubs and increasing delivery of this training to law enforcement agencies throughout the United States, IACP and Penn will help generate a broader culture change toward resilience and wellness in law enforcement.d
