Mental Health and Wellness Support
A resource guide for NJ State PBA members
How is your quality of life?
Mental Health
Spotlight
Many cops and first re-
sponders thrive on the rush
of crises, with hypervigi-
lance as the norm. Life-and-
death scenarios can keep an
officer focused on what is
important, with a seasoned
perspective to avoid sweat-
CHERIE
ing the small stuff. For the
CASTELLANO
most part, that is a healthy
Cop2Cop
outlook. When it comes to
self-assessment, however, it
can be a liability.
Unless officers are in urgent or emer-
gent situations, they may deny themselves
much-needed attention and self-care.
That means that the rush of everyday life
can make it difficult to engage in self-re-
flection and improvement. In positive
psychology movements, self-awareness
and building resilience are a focus. We
now use a “Quality of Life” survey not just
to talk about a cop’s presenting, immedi-
ate problem, but to look at overall quality
of life to examine a broader view of the ev-
eryday experience.
In my family, examining the bigger-pic-
ture stuff is a luxury that gets lost in kids,
long work hours, exhaustion and, for me,
I think a little bit of fear. Why should I look
at my overall quality of life if I think I have
little to no capacity to change it at this
time? I’m not trying to sound negative,
but many cops and their families (like
myself) are focused on kids and financ-
es and the wear and tear the job takes on
your body and soul — so time to sit back
and reflect is nonexistent.
The problem is that if you only attend
to your self-care and mental health when
there is a crisis, you create a pattern of
neglect that is counterproductive to your
self-awareness and resilience. It’s like
waiting until you have a heart attack to
adjust your diet or risky behavior.
So here are a few questions to help you
begin to consider the quality of your life
and what issues and goals you can cre-
Your score on the
ate to improve your life — a professional
quality-of-life survey. These are questions
Based on your responses, your score can
about your experiences, both positive and be placed in the following categories:
negative, as a helper. Consider each of the
•
Compassion Satisfaction: The plea-
following questions about you and your
sure you derive from being able to
current work situation. Select the num-
do your work well.
ber that honestly reflects how frequently
•
Burnout: The feelings of hopeless-
you experienced these things in the last
ness and difficulties in dealing with
30 days.
work or in doing your job effectively.
77
NEW JERSEY COPS
■ MARCH 2019
PROQOL screening
•
Secondary Traumatic Stress: Your
work-related, secondary exposure
to extremely or traumatically stress-
ful events.
To score your results, go to https://pro-
qol.org/uploads/ProQOL_5_English_Self-
Score_3-2012.pdf.