Page 42 - FOP Magazine March 2019

Mental Health and Wellness Support
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A message from EAP
Professional Counseling Division CPD Employee Assistance Program
312-743-0378
Widely trained clinicians and addiction counselors available 24/7/365
Peer Support Team
312-743-0378
The peer support team includes 300 officers who have taken a 40-hour training
Call for help
Peer support team on front lines of guidance for officers
Each month, the Professional Counseling Division of the Department’s Employee Assistance Program will provide a message to promote better mental health for officers. This month, Al Ferreira, EAP’s Peer Support program manager, discusses the services his team provides for Chicago Police Officers.
Emotional support awaits at the locker next to you or perhaps even the corner at the main in- tersection of your beat. More and more Chicago Police Officers are finding that when they need
an emotional rescue, they can reach out and talk to a member of Peer Support who is not far away.
Peer Support services is affiliated with the the Professional Counseling Division of the Department’s EAP.
These are fellow officers who have volunteered and are been specially trained to help deescalate emotions that can be in- flamed from critical incident response or any number of triggers on the job. Peer Support is there to provide guidance to address any issues that affect an officer’s mental health and wellness.
“When officers feel like the things they are doing or experi- encing become overwhelming, most of them have a strong sup- port structure when they go through these traumas,” explains Al Ferreira, the Peer Support program manager. “But if they don’t, we’re there for them when it seems to be too much to handle.”
Just how much they are there for fellow officers might be one of the best-kept secrets of EAP’s Professional Counseling Divi- sion, of which the Peer Support team is part. That’s the way the Peer Support team wants it to a degree, for, as Ferreira adds, “Ev- erything we do is confidential. People don’t know the full range of what we do because of that. A peer team member might talk to two or three people, but nobody will ever know because of the confidentiality. That’s something we’re really big on.”
Peer Support includes more than 260 active officers and 150 retirees, all of whom have completed a 40-hour training focus- ing on mental health issues and deescalating emotional re- sponses to trauma. Ferreira has worked his way up from Peer Support team member beginning in 2003, to team leader and team leader coordinator, before becoming program manager on Jan. 15. He took over after David Saucedo, who served as pro- gram manager for 10 years, retired.
The program manager is the only full-time position assigned to Peer Support. Every other officer on the team is a volunteer. Peer Support is on call 24/7 and team members are in every dis- trict and most specialized units. They conduct training at roll calls and have been doing work with supervisors to spot officers dealing with problems and then reach out to Peer Support.
Peer Support also includes a Primary Emergency Response Team (PERT) that can respond immediately to the scene of a trauma to provide emotional support and guidance. Peer Sup- port is trained to respond to any trauma, including family-re-
lated issues, and works with clinicians and alcohol counselors at EAP, even sitting in on counseling sessions at the officer’s re- quest.
“We’re on the front lines of mental healthcare,” Ferreira as- sesses. “Sometimes, it’s just about us standing next to a cop and having a conversation about how you are doing. Simple conver- sation starters get them to open up, especially if somebody is really hurting.”
Peer Support is mental healthcare by police officers for police officers. They are the peers who know that the follow-up to the “How are you doing” question can elicit that pause that means an officer really wants to talk.
Peer Support team members remind officers that it’s OK to unload their emotional baggage. They are trained to spot the cues of stress related to trauma or problems that might be oc- curring off the job, which are affecting them on the job.
“You can see it in their eyes or you can hear it in the way they talk,” Ferreira details. “We are seeing more and more officers being receptive to getting help. We are there with them from be- ginning to end, to walk them through getting help when they first reach out to when they’re pretty solid and no longer need us.”
Peer Support is also dedicated to helping officers not be afraid to use EAP mental healthcare services. Toward that end, the program conducts a family day at the academy to have dis- cussions with recruits and their family members about mental health and well-being.
Many of the Peer Support team members have been helped through tough times by other officers, which motivates them to pay it forward.
“We’ve experienced a lot of the things officers have,” Ferreira accentuates. “They might be able to relate to us a little better because they believe we’re going to understand them.”
Eventually, Peer Support would like to have enough resources to cover every shift in every district and specialized unit. The program appears to be moving in that direction because its ef- forts are having a significant impact.
“It’s all starting to add up to an increase in officers’ willing- ness to use EAP services or talk to Peer Support team members,” Ferreira adds. “A lot of things are being put on the table, and it seems the Department is taking a more active role in promoting mental health and wellness.”
42 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ MARCH 2019