Page 36 - FOP March 2017 Newsletter

TO YOUR HEALTH CONTINUED FROM PAGE 35
erything going on, officers have their foot on the gas all day,” he theorizes. “It’s never good for a car to have your foot on the gas all day.”
• Contact the Chicago Police Survivors who can match you up with an affected officer to offer support, em- pathy and understanding. They have experienced the most horrific things imaginable, just like you.
Clearly, there is a need for the Department to provide officers with more resources to ensure their mental, phys- ical, emotional and spiritual well-being like it has with re- sources for officer safety and fighting crime. Rob Casale notes that if he stood up in front of a group and announced he had cancer, his colleagues would throw a fundraiser for him, but if he said he was bi-polar, people might walk out of the room.
So, the time has come to realize the cost is way too high to think that way. It’s incumbent upon officers to seek the help knowing that talking to somebody won’t cost them their FOID card and that they should get that help before they crawl inside a bottle. Or worse.
“It’s probably partly the Department’s fault and partly our fault,” Warner reiterates. “We’re the macho guys who think we don’t need this, but the incidents of alcoholism and the divorce rate indicate failure of that type of think- ing. Also, the Department is a corporation, and like any corporation, the No. 1 asset is the employees. What have they done to put the officers in the right frame of mind to do the job to the best of their abilities?” d
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36 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ MARCH 2017