Report: Police departments need mental health programs [Salon.com]

Samantha Sangenito 5/27/1612:00 PM

A new federal report says police chiefs and sheriffs across the country should put mental health programs in place for their officers as soon as possible to prepare for the psychological aftermath of mass shootings and other traumatic events.

The report released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Justice and National Alliance on Mental Illness was prompted by the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, where 20 first-graders and six educators were shot to death.

[For more of this story, written by Dave Collins, go to http://www.salon.com/2016/05/2...tal_health_programs/]

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Leckey HarrisonMember

I agree with the need, for sure. Just not the solution, which really isn't new.

Most big departments already have them on staff, or on contract. Mid size suburban departments likely have EAPs. I think a better solution would be training at the individual level on how to release stress and trauma using the autonomic nervous system as a primary tool, and then for back-up a peer support system.

I'm in discussion with one agency whose EAP allows for 10 phone conversations. That by necessity means talking to a part of the brain that has little or nothing to do with stress and trauma. Hence the need to change not just what we do, but how we do it.

5/29/163:09 PM

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