OFFICER WELLNESS
How Self Care Can Reduce Police Officer Stress By Dan Fish, Lexipol
How do law enforcement officers end up chronically stressed, burned out and suffering from compassion fatigue? Why do so many officers fail to take care of themselves mentally and physically? And how can we help them achieve better health and balance?
Questions like these are dominating public safety lately. Look at any law enforcement publication, website or conference line-up, and you’ll see topics related to physical and mental wellbeing, post-traumatic stress, peer support and other behavioral health issues. (Full disclosure: The inspiration for this article was a presentation called “Keeping the Super Heroes Super,” presented by licensed psychologist and organization- al consultant Kimberly A. Miller, Ph.D., at the FBINAA California Re-Trainer in August 2017.)
In part, this shift is driven by sheer economics—recruiting is getting more and more difficult for law enforce- ment agencies, so we need to find ways to retain good officers. But scientific developments are also driving the change. We’re learning more about the essential connection between mental and emotional health and performance. And that changes job-related stress from something we should just “deal with” to something that presents significant risks for law enforcement agencies.
What’s Stressing Us Out? There’s no shortage of stressors in law enforcement. Depending on where you live and work, you may face media scrutiny or community distrust. Then there’s the grind of responding to call after call where people are exhibiting their worst behavior or are victims of someone else’s bad behavior. But let’s focus for a mi- nute on two even bigger factors that underlie these specific stressors.
First, law enforcement officers are hard-wired to focus on the negative. We are always in threat assessment mode. All the way back in the academy, we were taught to focus on the bad things that can happen— because doing so could save our lives one day. This hard-wired approach to focus on the negative can take its toll and make it difficult to differentiate situations where we should be looking for the positive.
Second, law enforcement today is an all-encompassing, 24/7 career. There is a high level of responsibility that comes with being a protector of the public. Coupled with that, law enforcement culture expects officers to be stoic and strong in the face of adversity. We are taught to resist normal physiological responses to tragedies or critical incidents. This combination creates a perfect storm: The profession becomes all- encompassing, but at the same time we don’t provide officers with tools to deal with the effects of the profession.
How Do We Know We’re Stressed? The consequences of police officer stress pose a serious threat. Before we go further, let’s consider a few definitions: • Stress is mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances. • Burnout is the cumulative process marked by emotional exhaustion or withdrawal associated with in- creased workload or institutional stress.
• Compassion fatigue is the emotional residue/strain of exposure to working with those suffering trau- matic events. It can encompass physical symptoms, such as difficulty sleeping, and emotional symptoms, such as loss of self-worth or anger.
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