Emotional health and wellness is one of the most critical issues facing law enforcement, yet it is one of the least addressed. The stress and trauma faced by officers have adverse effects on their emotional and mental health. For example, suicide continues to be one of the top causes of death for law enforcement officers, and nearly one in five officers suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).¹ Communities are less safe if the officers serving them are suffering from the many potential adverse effects of the profession.

Without effective emotional health and wellness training, officers are extremely vulnerable to becoming victimized by a life of service, trauma, and acute stress. Emotional well-being practices are ways to enhance resiliency and effectively process stress and trauma while maintaining health, wellness, and a motivation to serve. A proactive emotional health and wellness program is essential to protect and improve the welfare of those who serve.

La Mesa Police Department Proactive Wellness Program

Over the past several years, the La Mesa, California, Police Department (LMPD) has instituted numerous proactive emotional health and wellness initiatives. The agency’s wellness program has not only raised awareness, but has also provided resources, training, and outlets for its officers to enhance their mental health, overall wellness, and effectiveness.

The following are emotional health and wellness initiatives incorporated by LMPD:

Peer Support Team—A trusted, active peer support team is essential to maintain a healthy organization. It is invaluable to have peers who not only distinctively understand the nature of police work and trauma, but also care about the well-being of their colleagues who offer themselves to assist in many ways that are helpful. The La Mesa Peer Support team comprises selected leaders who are officers, dispatchers, chaplains, and the police psychologist, who serves as a consultant. It was developed initially through a steering committee appointed by the chief. The team’s purpose is to provide assistance and support for employees having a difficult time, as well as to provide ongoing wellness resources and training to promote ways to increase resiliency and coping abilities and to manage stress and trauma.

Voluntary Physical Fitness Program—Each quarter, officers or dispatchers may voluntarily take a physical fitness test, and they can earn from two to ten hours of paid time off per quarter, depending upon how physically fit they are. The quarterly assessment involves seven measurements: sit-ups, push-ups, 1.5-mile run or walk, resting heart rate, resting blood pressure, flexibility, and body composition (percentage of fat, bone, water, and muscle).

Annual Emotional Well-Being and Wellness Check Up—Employees are encouraged once per year to meet with the police psychologist or any trauma therapist as a matter of mental and emotional health maintenance.

Wellness Library—Books and resources on emotional wellness and health have been compiled. Officers instinctively know what the job can do to their health and quality of life, and, when resources are made available, officers will often use them.

Quarterly Wellness Newsletter—The police department publishes a quarterly wellness newsletter written and produced by members of the LMPD Peer Support team, with articles on fitness, wellness, and emotional health.

PTSD Informational Pamphlets for Home—LMPD created pamphlets on PTSD, its symptoms and warning signs, how PTSD affects the entire family, officer stress, and specific ways for family members to assist and support the officer or dispatcher. The more information families and friends receive, the more effective they become in assisting and supporting their law enforcement family members.

Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Debriefings for Family Members—LMPD’s trauma therapist and Peer Support team conduct a CISM debriefing with the family members of officers involved in a critical incident. This debriefing provides the opportunity to learn how trauma affects their officers and provides useful information and training on how best to support them.

Family Training Days—Once yearly, LMPD holds a family training day, where family members come to the department and are provided with resources and training on PTSD, officer stress, the employee assistance program, and effective ways to support their law enforcement family members.

Opportunities to Connect and Make a Difference within the Community—LMPD instituted positive, proactive efforts to engage officers with the community, thereby providing them with positive interactions that enhance their motivation, sense of purpose, and overall wellness.

Each summer, officers coordinate a Youth Leadership Camp where 20–25 high school students come to the department for eight hours a day for a week to learn about leadership, ethics, community service, and ways to have a meaningful life. Each day, the officers and youth perform an act of community service, such as removing graffiti, delivering food to homeless people, or cleaning up yards of older community members. They also do a physical challenge each day, such as hiking, mountain climbing, or kayaking.

Emotional Health in the FTO Program and Yearly Evaluations—The FTO program was amended to now require new officers to be aware of the resources available to them for emotional wellness, as well as offering suggestions for them to develop their own emotional health and wellness program throughout their entire career.

Yearly evaluations were changed to include supervisor discussions with the officer on wellness, emotional health, and the things officers can do to enhance their well-being. The supervisor also provides emotional well-being resources during the evaluation process, such as contact information for peer support team members, the chaplain, and the police psychologist.

Emotional well-being practices are ways to enhance resiliency and effectively process stress and trauma while maintaining health, wellness, and a motivation to serve.

Chaplain Program—The chaplain has become involved in all aspects of the agency and is an integral part of the LMPD Peer Support team. The chaplain goes on frequent ride-alongs, visits officers and dispatchers, goes on call-outs to deal with homeless families and children, and ministers to the agency by offering herself to assist in all ways that are needed.

Final Thoughts

LMPD’s wellness program has created a culture in which wellness and emotional health are taken seriously, and resources to improve them are embraced by the officers. Careers have been saved, and lives have been changed. In the words of one officer, who was involved in a fatal shooting and suffered from PTSD, about the wellness program and Peer Support team: “They saved my career, my marriage, and probably even my life.”²

Notes:

¹John M. Violanti, Police Suicide: Epidemic in Blue (Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 2007).

²Tim Purdy (officer, La Mesa Police Department), interview, wellness training video.