Aid in Full
For PBA members feeling the traumatic stress on the job and the problems it can cause off the job is leading to depression, anxiety, substance abuse and even thoughts of suicide, there is help to keep you from going down that dark path.
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
Imagine the pain, the shame of a 25-year life in law enforcement leading to sleeping on a park bench in Vegas. Homeless. A victim of a gambling addiction. Here lay retired Belleville Local 28 member Anthony Weedo, broke on the first day he received his pension check. No money for food or his diabetes medication; all of it left at the casinos or the sports book. If he didn’ t make the call, he would be dead.
“ Everything turned around because I called Cop2Cop,” Weedo revealed.
Imagine the pain, the helplessness coursing through State Corrections Local 105 First Vice President Sean Sprich, causing him to take another drink and black out while driving home. He wrapped his car around a tree, fortunate not to seriously injure himself. Or anybody else. If he didn’ t check into Princeton House Behavioral Health for treatment, imagine where Sprich would be.“ I would have lost everything,” Sprich confessed. Imagine the pain, the stress, the weakness Moe Farallo, the NJ State PBA Peer Assistance Committee co-chair and Passaic Local 14 State Delegate, tried to endure with the DWI resulting from the crash that left him pinned against the steering wheel. He went away for 45 days to get treatment and stayed for an additional 45 days. If he had not, Farallo might never have figured out that you can’ t do this on your own.
“ I finally surrendered and started doing work within myself,” he admitted.“ If you don’ t, you’ re only going to talk yourself into the worst things in the world.”
The Responders
• Mauro Farallo: 973-902-7821
• Michael Pellegrino: 609-352-3398
• Dr. Eugene Stefanelli: 732-609-3554
• Dr. Michael Bizzarro: 732-771-7165
• Ken Burkert: 908-346-1691
• Cop 2 Cop: 866-267-2267
The worst of times for law enforcement officers can be marked by so much evidence these days: public decry; public ambushes; the accumulation of post-traumatic stress; salary stagnation or reduction; cost of benefits increasing; having to work overtime to make up for salary; working too much overtime taking a toll on marriage and family; depression; sleepshift disorder. Sadly, due to any or all of this – or more – four New Jersey officers apparently felt it couldn’ t get much worse this past December and took their own lives.
The worst of times can lead officers to self-medicating and the vicious cycle. The stress, pain, helplessness and weakness builds. Relief comes in the form of a drink or a drug. There’ s temporary happiness. But more stress comes. So does another Scotch or another pill. More relief, though it doesn’ t last as long. And more drinks or drugs or other self-destructive behaviors. And then the bucket overflows.
Whether the officers lost in December or any of the law en-
CONTINUED ON PAGE 32 www. njcopsmagazine. com ■ JANUARY 2018 31