Page 11 - FOP March 2017 Newsletter

A hard pill to swallow
By the time you read this article, Lodge 7 members will have elected a new Board of Directors. Although some of the board mem- bers have changed, the mission of the FOP is the same: “Serve and Protect” our mem- bership. There is no greater privilege than to serve others.
During the past term, we have done just that. Unlike our mission, the Department seemed to take a different path to serve its officers and their well-being, whether due to bureaucratic or politi- cal pressure. The Department’s path to get ahead of the DOJ report, and its recommendations, never included officer wellness and safety; but the DOJ did make it part of the report. Now that’s a hard pill to swallow, which
leads me to this thought:
During my term, I have been tasked with many issues.
But there is something that I never thought of when I was elected in 2014: responding to the scene of a police suicide. Regrettably, I did two too many. I always left the scene asking why it happened and how could it have been prevented?
If a member logged on to the Chicago Police Depart- ment Directive System and searched for any topic, all of the Department’s General Orders would be found. But when you type in “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,” guess what comes up? Nothing. A basic search will usu- ally pick up key words, and you would think that with “traumatic,” “stress” or “disorder,” something would populate. But nothing comes up.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
my experience that officers might experience a trau- matic incident, but not realize it’s affecting them until months, or even years, later. At what time do we indicate it’s a duty-related injury? Is it at the time when the officer experiences that incident or when the officer begins experiencing the symp- toms: anxiety; avoiding certain areas or people that might remind them of that incident; hyper- sensitivity; having difficulty sleeping; or overreact- ing or underreacting, both of which are dangerous to
law enforcement?
Officers might not realize they have PTSD until
months or years later when they face a similar incident to the one that caused the traumatic stress, and they freeze up. Or they don’t know they have this disorder un- til they have lost a relationship with a spouse, or they are self-medicating, at which time it’s too late.
The rate that relationships are falling apart and that officers are self-medicating – or worse – has rapidly increased this past year, and we didn’t really need the DOJ Investigation Report to remind us that it’s time to address officer wellness and safety and PTSD. Unfortu- nately, there’s no magic pill; there’s no “take two and call
CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ MARCH 2017 11
RAY CASIANO, JR.
If you typed in “Mental Health,” several directives and General Orders would populate. There are
two that I would like to bring to your attention: “Professional Counseling Service/Employee As- sistance Program E06-01” and “Traumatic Inci-
dent Stress Management Program E06-03,” nei-
ther of which have been updated recently. Both documents refer to each other and have several op- portunities to offer the EAP phone number, 312-743- 0378. Instead, you have to read through the entire direc- tive to find the number on the last page. Not being able to find more information or a better directive might be a good thing. If the Department is not ready to address Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and invest the resources needed to help our officers, why post a half- baked policy? How many officers are ready to raise their hands at roll call and say they have PTSD? It’s very diffi- cult to step up and say you have it, when you might be labeled as somebody who has a disorder or you might not even know that you have PTSD.
The problem some agencies have is that it’s very hard to pinpoint when PTSD will manifest, or what assign- ment or call for service caused the reaction. It’s been
First Vice President’s
REPORT