Page 33 - November2018

Let there be light
■ BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
Emotional first aid lurks inside a three-story apartment building set amid residential calm on West Adams. Unit 128, the Professional Counseling Division of the Department’s EmployeeAssistanceProgram(EAP,)makesitsheadquarters here, welcoming Chicago Police Officers with outstretched colleagues who can help their budding addiction problems, debrief on the horrific shooting or domestic they just re- sponded to, council them through the traumatic stress that has been brewing for years and provide needed support for their families.
Many officers walk fearfully through these doors, ner- vously, eyes down. But after an hour, a day, week or may- be a year, they walk out of Unit 128 or some of the many treatment and counseling facilities that support the Depart- ment’s and Chicago Lodge 7’s growing mission to improve mental health and wellness with eyes up, eyes open – shin- ing eyes, as they are known in recovery.
Unit 128 has been responding to calls at the pace of a hot summer night in the City. Part of the wave has resulted from a proviso in the consent decree levied on the City stipulating that the Department meet officers’ requests for more men- tal healthcare. Concern, even panic, has been striking in the aftermath of four officers who took their own lives during the past few months.
‘Mental well-being should be a daily part of an officer’s routine.’
Dr. Rob Sobo, director,
EAP Professional Counseling Division
Add in trepidation sparking intensifying media and public scrutiny, pressure to comply with the seemingly uncontrol- lable volume of oversight and the day-after-day-after-day- after-day trauma that comes with the job and it’s a wonder there’s not a line out the door on West Adams. And when it comes to finding the courage to inquire about treatment and the worry about its impact on job security, Chicago Po- lice Officers naturally have their eyes wide shut.
But this is precisely why Unit 128 and its cadre of drug and alcohol counselors, internal and external clinicians, peer assistants and complete confidentiality and anonymity are there for Chicago Police Officers. It is precisely why resourc- es from EAP and through EAP produce calls like the one Of- ficer Joe Riley, an EAP addiction counselor, received in early November. An officer in recovery called on the seventh an- niversary of getting sober to celebrate with Riley, who notes,
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The increasing call to face trauma, deal with stress and even see friends and colleagues taking
their own lives is causing more and more mental health issues
for Chicago Police Officers. They are asking for more and more
help to face these dark times. And the help is here...
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ NOVEMBER 2018 33