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“For whatever reason, the Department is just not prepared to handle these sorts of things and doesn’t want to face it head on,” observes Mette, who has been tapped to lead the Lodge 7 initiative to upgrade mental health services for members. “The preventative measures just aren’t there. It’s not about finding the perfect option. It’s about finding every option and putting it out there.”
It can be helped
Lodge 7 has been moving its plan to increase reliable resourc- es for members forward since last August. Actually, Mette re- ports, the union’s mental health committee has been asking the Department for support and funding to expand resources for the past two years but has not been able to get any agreement to do so.
In the meantime, suicides have become a dire situation for Chicago Police Officers. The Department’s suicide rate in 2017 was 60 percent higher than the nationwide average for police, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
A kind estimate would suggest that the feeling of desperation for Chicago Police Officers doubled between 2017 and 2020. In 2020, it doubled again due to COVID risks, battling protestors and responding to riots, and the excruciating run of cancelled days off last summer and into the fall.
Could it have doubled again when the Illinois General Assem- bly recently passed the criminal justice reform bill in January?
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With being brutally overworked, being slung though the mud by the media and the public at every turn and feeling like the City has turned its back on officers (exacerbated, no doubt, by not giving them a new contract despite doing so for firefighters and teachers), the rate threatens to skyrocket past 60 percent higher than the norm.
“I think many officers are feeling, ‘Oh my gosh, I could not only get arrested, I could get locked up or I could have every- thing taken from me,’” assesses Dr. Carrie Steiner, a retired Chi- cago Police Officer who served for 13 years and is now a licensed clinical psychologist with First Responders Wellness, where she serves as a police and public service psychologist. “So we need to help them feel that they have some control and help them learn how they can protect themselves and have more options.”
Catanzara has repeatedly suggested that the cancellation of days off and mandatory extension of tours has bred a lot of an- ger and blame on the Department. The Employee Assistance Program’s (EAP) Professional Counseling Division has been conducting weekly focus groups, and the feedback that keeps coming back is that officers feel a complete lack of support from the administration and that they are being beaten to death.
Consequently, the Lodge is working to develop wellness pro- grams that are focused not only on mental health and stress re- lief, but also on physical fitness and even resources to promote financial wellness. In short, the objective is to make members feel like they are always being taken care of, to ensure that when the anxiety, hardship and sadness set in, that they won’t take over every aspect of their lives.
“A lot of officers just need to talk, to get shit off their chest,” Mette submits. “It’s something that I think the FOP, the City, the Department, EAP and peer support should all be working hand in hand on. There’s plenty of officers with stories of how they overcame tragedy, trauma and personal issues. And I think we can use that to show other officers who are suffering in silence.”
Of course, there is nothing like having somebody to talk to. There is no better way to relieve the burden of pain or anguish officers carry around.
“To just get it off your chest is a big help, so to speak, and then you process it and work through it,” emphasizes Dr. Rob Sobo, director of the Department’s Professional Counseling Division. “It’s like that saying: You’re as sick as your secrets.”
Can we help you?
Lodge 7’s objective with increasing access to mental health resources is not about reinventing services. “The information is there,” Mette recognizes. “We just have to get it to our members better.”
It is about redacting the hurdles that members feel the De- partment keeps putting there. Officers don’t want to feel they are risking penalties for seeking treatment. They need reassur- ance that it won’t come back to the Department and result in no-pay status because of an FOID card issue.
“That’s just going to make those who want to get help say, ‘No, screw that. I need my money. I need my health benefits for my family,’” Mette adds. “That’s completely the wrong approach. We should be doing everything in our power to make getting help the easiest thing to do.”
Fast forward to Lodge 7’s latest brainstorm. The FOP is put- ting forth a proposal to the City to add an eighth field represen- tative to the Lodge team. The rep would be a patrol officer, and the City would combine with the union to fund the position.
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