Page 39 - SEPTEMBE 2018 Newsletter

under the new law.
“If you think every one of your men and women are coming to
work 100 percent, you’re fooling yourselves,” he adds. “It’s your job to see how they are doing, to ask them how they are doing.” The Law Enforcement Support Program Confidentiality Act
might open the door for officers to get treatment for what Dr. Sobo assesses as perhaps the greatest issue plaguing Chicago Police Officers’ mental health. He notes how vicarious trauma is building up due to officers witnessing and responding to the gruesome situations that come with homicides, gang-related responses and domestics in which victims, especially kids, have been abused.
It’s the day-to-day issues that treatment can now target and have a powerful impact on the well-being of the entire Depart- ment.
“We’re trying to help them maintain practices that help them recover from the stresses of the day,” Dr. Sobo expounds. “The larger population of police officers who suffer vicarious trauma lose a certain quality of life. They become traumatized, stressed and depressed. They become more vulnerable to different mal- adies like drug and alcohol abuse, addiction, divorce or other, more problematic situations.”
Feedback from your fellow officers
Restore the brain to healthy functioning...Enhance coping skills...No penalty for admitting something isn’t working right...Get your mind off all the things going on in life...
Treatment that is now accessible includes studying and treat- ing the brain as an organ, like a cardiologist would study and treat heart disease. There is also group counseling, equine ther- apy, art therapy and other approaches being used to enhance coping skills and get your mind off all the things that might in-
hibit well-being.
But the treatment that has become available through the Law
Enforcement Support Program Confidentiality Act, and which matters most, comes through cops helping cops. Officers don’t want to explain how facing an active shooter is keeping them up all night and making them hypervigilant. Cops don’t want to worry whether somebody will understand the traumatic stress that comes with responding to a call from a residence and find- ing a double homicide.
Now, Chicago Police Officers can talk to each other about their issues, and neither has to worry about one ratting out the other.
“If you get feedback from your fellow officers, that’s extraordi-
A healthy police officer is what we want on the street
narily helpful,” Dr. Sobo comments. “An officer helping another officer through a difficult time is very powerful and very import- ant.”
EAP’s campaign of hitting roll calls has set up a cop-to-cop network. Additionally, mandatory training has been presented to sergeants, lieutenants, commanders, FTOs and new recruits covering officer wellness, good practices and services that are available to officers and their family members.
“Our services are being well-utilized, and we want to ensure officers who might be hesitant that they should now feel free and safe to use them,” Dr. Sobo advises. “If we make talking about the emotional consequence of being on the job a normal, healthy and courageous practice, it will take away the stigma.” d
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CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ SEPTEMBER 2018 39
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