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Mental Health and Wellness Support
Advice from professionals to promote better mental healthcare
Build a Support System
Beckie Fischer,
Clinician
CPD Professional Counseling Division/EAP
Oftentimes, police officers want to distance the job from home life by not reaching out for support outside the job.
One of things I encourage officers to do is to talk more about with family members about what the job is like. This will help build emotional intimacy between themselves and their part- ners and the support systems they have.
There’s a tendency to not want family members and support systems to hear about the job and the awful things a police of- ficer sees on a daily basis. Doing so creates more distance be- tween those support people in your lives.
Feelings don’t go away when you don’t have ways to address them. They stick around and become so large that you can’t control them. So you try control mechanisms like drug and al- cohol abuse or non-monogamous relationships.
So, reach out and talk to someone. It doesn’t have to be a spouse. But usually coming home can provide an excellent sup- port network. We also have an excellent peer support network in the Department available 24 hours a day.
Get Some Sleep
Officer Joseph Riley
Addictions Counselor, Board Registered Interventionist CPD Professional Counseling Division/EAP
Not taking care of yourself, working midnights, changing shifts, something happening at work – there are so many things you can lose sleep over.
It’s kind of a vicious cycle. If you can’t get to sleep, you might try having a couple of drinks. Pretty soon, you’re having a few drinks every night before you go to bed. We call it self-medicat- ing. It starts out with a beer or two, or a glass of wine. Then it becomes every night, more and more.
When you are feeling that irritability or people are telling you that you always look tired, take time to really relax before you go to bed. You can go through a routine before you go to bed and go to bed earlier to leave time to relax.
The stresses of the job and the calls you go through can become part of your routine. Maybe taking some quiet time during the day or meditating at night can become part of your routine.
Something is always going to take you out of that routine: eating bad food, not eating at the right time, going to bed at different times. When that happens, get back to basics and get back to your routine.
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ FEBRUARY 2019 41