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‘I know we are taking officers who are struggling and giving them the help they need.’
Joe Riley, EAP addiction counselor
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“Miracles do happen.”
Miracles happen every day in every way with Chicago Po-
lice Officers, who day after day after day after day are dig- ging into their mental healthcare resources.
“We want to make sure that we give officers every oppor- tunity to check in and see where their mental well-being is at,” confirms Dr. Rob Sobo, director of EAP’s Professional Counseling Division. “Mental well-being should be a daily part of an officer’s routine. And it needs to safe, expected and consistent. They maintain everything they need to sur- vive on the street every day. It only makes sense to maintain their mental well-being the same way.”
See the Light
Attention to Chicago Police Officers’ mental well-being is off the hook. Literally. In 2017, during the midnight hours, EAP took more than 600 emergency phone calls from offi- cers who required immediate intervention from a counsel- or, clinician or peer.
Imagine what the numbers have been overall? Enough that the Professional Counseling Division is expanding to add 10 more clinicians and looking at opening satellite facil- ities on the north and south sides to provide greater access to resources.
According to the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM–5), the four groups of people most susceptible to de- veloping post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are combat veterans, rape victims, people held in captivity and first re- sponders. Additionally, statistics indicate that the average police officer sees more trauma in one month than most civilians see in their entire lives. And most Chicago Police Officers might see more trauma in one day than most civil- ians see in a lifetime.
“I don’t watch the numbers of how many suicides we pre- vent, but I feel like it’s pretty high,” observes Riley, who is also a board certified interventionist. “I know we are taking officers who are struggling and giving them the help they need. A lot of people want our help. And they are getting better. You feel it.”
To achieve feel-good, Chicago Police Officers battling ad- diction, PTSD, depression and any number of other mental health challenges that can be helped must want to get there. It takes an active participant in treatment to succeed.
Being an active participant means police officers fighting the instinct that makes them police officers: the strength to endure, persevere and run toward danger if that’s what it takes. But just like on the street, they can’t go it alone to get to mental well-being.
“Just like in the field, you need to call for backup,” urges Dr. Michael Baldinger, medical director of Harborview Re-
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covery Center at Presence St. Joseph Hospital, which treats Chicago Police Officers on referral from EAP. “If you’re in a situation where you’re faced with a bunch of bad guys, you wouldn’t want to go in there alone. People who feel they are hopeless, if they reach out, they will find there is an entire team there for them and that desperation and isolation will give way toward a sense of hope and connection.”
Shedding Light
The silver lining lurking behind the consent decree re- cently activated to reform the Department might be a man- date for increasing mental healthcare. Chicago Police Offi- cers asked for it and will be getting it with the City’s approval for the Professional Counseling Services expansion.
If officers have their way, there will also be consent from bosses to motivate their charges to get treatment. Training for command staff is planned to understand how to get offi- cers into mental healthcare without having to put their jobs on the line.
But it is incumbent on officers not to fear that their jobs or lives are deteriorating and come in for help before it gets that bad. They must also overcome the esprit de corps that makes them believe they don’t need help, that they have to take care of themselves.
‘People who feel they are hopeless, if they reach out, they will find there is an entire team there for them.’
Dr. Michael Baldinger, medical director of Harborview Recovery Center Professional Counseling Services
“You are going to be more at risk to overreacting or under- reacting if you don’t get treatment,” warns Dr. Carrie Steiner, a licensed clinical therapist who served as a Chicago Police Officer for 13 years and specializes in treating first respond- ers. “It’s better to go and get treatment when you first start having problems than to wait until you have so many prob- lems that it will be so much harder to fix them. What I really tell officers is that’s better to be alive and getting treatment than to be dead.”
The gorilla in the room has grown beyond 800 pounds be- cause of the increasing number of Chicago Police Officers who have committed suicide. Clinical analysis relates sim- ply that people who commit suicide think there is no help. And most officers believe that “will never be me” or that get- ting help is a sign of weakness.
They need to take advantage of the help available, how- ever, to realize that it takes more strength to talk about your problems and feelings than it does to buy a six-pack. Steiner has witnessed this through a series of wellness checks she has conducted for departments in Chicagoland. She reports that officers who have initially not wanted to see her but have been required to do so have been staying longer than the hour allotted because they have so much to talk about.
Unit 128 has had similar success by getting officers to un- derstand that their service is not the alcohol police. Profes-
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