Page 21 - February 2016

Resilience, balance and ‘Emotional Intelligence’
I attended the Chicago Police Memorial Foun- dation Police Suicide Prevention and Awareness Seminar on Jan. 19 in Oak Brook.
The first speaker was Tim Perry, the head of Nationwide Chaplain Services, who has a passion for police, fire and public safety. He delivered a speech titled “Living the Resilient Life” (check it out at www.theresilientlife.org).
Resilience is the ability to make a plan and take action upon it to improve or overcome a challenge. This involves the ability to bounce
back, enduring or adapting to change, personal growth and to learn from your mistakes. You need self-care and support, high expectations for success, opportunity for meaningful participa- tion by volunteering in the community, positive bonding with peers, life skills, the ability to listen and communicate well and set goals and keep them. You also need clear and consistent boundaries, and, lastly, he stressed the need for supportive peo- ple in your life.
The organization can be stressful because of living in a fish- bowl, fear of the unknown, having family life disrupted, financial challenges, bringing the job home, public perception, cynicism, bureaucracy, the travel schedule and toxic people you work with, or it can be us.
We have to balance all three worlds: The Department, which consists of career, bureaucracy, and policy; home, which consists of relationships, children, and finances; and the street,
which consists of safety, crisis and isolation.
Retired CPD officer Brian Warner, an 18-year veteran and
head of the Chicago Police Survivors Group, spoke eloquently about his shooting, which led to an outside doctor diagnosing him with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) a year-and-a- half later.
Father Dan Brandt, Director of the Chicago Police Chaplain’s group, spoke about the confidentiality of his unit and his web- site, www.chicagoPCM.org. No notes are taken at the chaplain’s unit or peer support group.
Another message is that Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a pow- erful weapon. As communicators, we have to laugh at ourselves, and people with a high emotional intelligence live a satisfying life. EI drives your life choices. Four components of EI are: self- awareness, which includes peace in your life; self-management; social awareness and relationship management.
The seminar also provided some statistics on police suicide: 91 percent involve firearms; in 83 percent, a personal problem is prevalent and the officer couldn’t talk to anybody about it; 15- 18 percent are related to PTSD, from which more than 150,000 officers suffer; 50 percent involve relationship-related stress costs; 91 percent are male; 63 percent are single and 11 percent are military. The average age of police officers who commit sui- cide is 42 with an average length of service 16 years.
On the street police need protective fibers in their souls and bodies, otherwise it will tear you up. We have to catch it in time. Today is the day. d
SERGEANT AT ARMS
BILL BURNS
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ FEBRUARY 2016 21