For the last several years, there is a sad, yet often unspoken, truth as it relates to law enforcement: more police officers die by suicide than those who die in the line of duty.
Although the reasons for officer suicide are complex and multifaceted, one of the major contributors to officer suicide is the persistent stigma around seeking mental health treatment. There is also a culture of stoicism in law enforcement; there is a fear of being seen as weak or unreliable, especially on high-stress calls for service. Stigma and stoicism work together to prevent officers from asking for help and seeking mental health treatment.
Stigma and stoicism work together to prevent officers from asking for help.
One promising solution is for officers to have periodic wellness visits with a competent mental health professional who has significant experience with police and public safety personnel. The primary purposes of the wellness visit would be to provide support to the officer, promote and improve officer well-being, and decrease the stigma around seeking mental health services. It is hoped that these wellness visits would normalize the process of officers speaking with mental health professionals. In addition, if more officers would seek mental health treatment, then the early detection of emotional stressors and possible mental health problems should reduce the likelihood that an officer would need to be temporarily placed off-duty to receive treatment. Finally, the wellness visit can increase an officer’s knowledge about mental health, wellness, and resiliency.
If an agency makes the visit mandatory, then every uniformed staff member should attend—from the chief all the way down to the newest officer hired. Agencies that have mandated the wellness visits had them occur while the officer is on duty. Some agencies make the visit optional; in these cases, the utilization rate for wellness visits has been comparable to the U.S. national utilization rate for employee assistance program services (i.e., about 3 percent to 5 percent). The frequency of the wellness visits can vary, although it is most common to have them done annually.
Confidentiality concerns are paramount for police officers. Police psychologist and retired New York City Police Department Detective Tom Coghlan, PhD, shared the following sentiment: Officers are more worried about someone else finding out they asked for help than they are about getting better. Hence, for the wellness visit to be useful, it is critically important that the officer understand there is absolutely no evaluative component. Said another way, they need to know that the wellness visit is not a fitness for duty evaluation.
Making wellness visits successful include ensuring that everyone involved knows the rules up front: (1) the agency will receive only a letter confirming attendance; (2) the purpose of the visit is to promote the officer’s mental health; and (3) the session is confidential, with the limits of confidentiality varying by jurisdiction (typically, danger to self or others requires the mental health professional to take action).
With the explicit goal of having officers retire healthy following their years of service to their agency, the wellness visit can be a useful component of a comprehensive wellness program. The IACP’s Police Psychological Services Section (PPSS) is currently working on guidelines for wellness visits. It is hoped that these will be available in late 2022 or early 2023. In the interim, questions about wellness visits should be directed to the current general chair of the PPSS, Dr. Gina Gallivan (pcaincorporated@gmail.com). Stay safe and healthy!d
