Page 52 - November 2020

Mental Health and Wellness Support
A resource guide for Chicago Lodge 7 members
A message from EAP
Professional Counseling Division Call for help Peer Support Team
Widely trained clinicians and addiction who have taken a 40-hour training counselors available 24/7/365
CPD Employee Assistance Program
312-743-0378
312-743-0378 The peer support team includes 300 officers
Support is (almost) everywhere
Each month, the Department’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provides a message to promote better mental health for Chi- cago Police Officers. This month Al Ferreira, Peer Support Program Manager, reminds members to reach out to the Department’s peer support team for help.
Peer support isn’t everywhere, but it seems that way.
During a summer of unprecedented deployment for Chicago Police Officers, the number of contacts they made reaching out for peer support has been equally unprecedented. Some of that has come from younger officers, who don’t seem to have a prob- lem connecting with peer support.
Suffice to say, cell phones of nearly 300 Chica- go Police Officers who are trained peer support team members are ringing on all watches. And members should know that their peers are there to answer the calls.
To increase the peer support network, 185 officers recently completed peer support training certification. There has been a need to make up for the loss of some team members who have been promoted or retired. They are assigned across the Depart- ment. They might not be on every watch in every district, but they are trying to make themselves unequivocally available, so it seems that way.
A lot of calls recently have been about family-related issues. COVID is playing a big part in that. Some of those families are dealing with teenagers who are having more personal battles. But a lot of it is because the Department has struggled with the deployment coming at the last minute. Officers have come into work to find out that they need to do a 12-hour day. Now, they have to scramble to make sure their kids are taken care of, and those family issues are pushing many of them to a breaking point. Their anxiety that is already off the charts just keeps increasing.
Peer support proudly reports that officers are not reaching out about police work per se. Everybody gets the nature of po- lice work. It’s not the first time police officers have been looked at negatively. And it’s not going to be the last time. What’s getting to them is the way their days are being upset. It’s hard enough to manage a family within the confines of policing, but they are confused about how to take care of their families amid unreliable scheduling.
Peer support members have also been hearing that it’s not just the 12-hour days weighing heavy on officers. They are hearing that officers are showing up for roll calls on third watch and being asked to stay and cover midnights. So it’s the 16-hour days that are adding to the mental health burden.
Increased anxiety has come from increased confusion about the message coming from the Department related to officers’ mental health. They hear about the concern for their mental health and wellness, but constantly being asked to do more with less doesn’t seem to support the mental health message. Accord-
ing to some peer support members, it’s the “here we go again” pil- ing causing a feeling of disregard for mental health and wellness. When that feeling hits, officers really need to reach out to peer
support team members. The reason peer team members pres- ent such a compelling ear is because they have walked the walk alongside so many of their sisters and brothers. They know what it’s like to go through the same challenges.
And if it gets to be overwhelming for an officer, the peer team member can see that sister or brother is in bad shape. And the peer team member knows the resources that can provide help, whether that is a clinician in the Department’s Professional Counseling Division, a drug and alcohol counselor or a profes- sional who can address family situations.
Think of a peer support team member like a triage nurse. They see members who express that stress or anxiety is getting to them and determine if it’s something they can put a band-aid on to get the officer through the rest of the day, or if the officer needs to be referred to the next in line, which is most likely a clinician in Professional Counseling.
The calls to peer support team members are also an indication that officers no longer fear the stigma of reaching out for help. The officers who are physically walking into the Professional Counseling Division officers and/or participating in debriefings with counselors after responding to critical incidents confirm that seeking mental health and wellness is not a sign of mental weakness.
This is the good side of the consent decree. The Department has been forced to put the message out about the importance of mental health on the job and create programs to address it be- cause of the consent decree. More and more officers now know that if they seek help, they don’t risk something happening to af- fect their job status.
Peer support team members now share about visits to roll calls where officers are talking about how they reached out to EAP and how it helped them. There are those who said they were initially reluctant to go to debriefings after suffering trauma from critical incidents but have experienced long-term benefits. Not only are they not fighting it, they are brining family members with them.
So because peer support team members can’t be everywhere, officers should not hesitate to reach out when they see them. If you want to take care of yourself, your partner and your family, that’s why peer support is there. Don’t take your stress and anxiety home with you or take it out on the community or the Depart- ment. A peer support team member is there, ready to listen and prepared to help.
52 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ NOVEMBER 2020