CLASS ACTION
NJ State PBA
Peer Liaison training
April 27
NJ State PBA Office, Woodbridge
10 a.m.
For information
call Mike Pellegrino at:
609-352-3398
email: [email protected]
The NJ State PBA is again offering Peer Assistance Training classes like this one that was held at the state office in Woodbridge.
On Call
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 29
The calls come in day and night, according
to all who get them - Dr. Stef, Dr. B, Cop 2 Cop
and Pellegrino and the PART. Pellegrino
relates one he recently received from a member he characterized as “feeling sad.”
No reason to take any chances when a call
like that comes in. So he immediately
deployed the Question-Persuade-Response
(QPR) method Castellano has trained thousands of PBA members to enact. These are
the calls that reinforce clinical services and
peer assistance are making a difference.
“We have the ability to handle tough situations,” Pellegrino asserts. “We have the
resources to make sure the Locals are getting
trained and asking the tough questions. The
tough questions are the ones that can be the
difference in saving somebody's life.”
Pellegrino laments that it seems every
time he steps in front of the membership at
a state meeting or PBA convention to talk
about peer assistance and suicide awareness,
“that's when a lot of people get up and go to
the bathroom.” Consequently, one of the disconnects with engaging is the need for more
QPR training.
That disconnect is only exacerbated by the
plethora of new State Delegates and Local
presidents who have yet had the opportunity
to get trained. The PBA is addressing that by
stepping up its Peer Assistance classes,
beginning with one scheduled for April 27 in
Woodbridge. Pellegrino challenges members
to be one of the 40 to get into the class and
make a difference.
Get into the class and make a difference
like Peer Liaison Co-Chair Mauro Farallo, the
Passaic Local 14 Delegate, and Bergen County Sheriff’s Department Local 134 State Delegate Andy Pacucci, who have the exposure
and experience to engage and enforce. Farallo’s longtime fight to get sober and Pacucci
30
NEW JERSEY COPS
■
APRIL 2016
losing two members of his Academy class to
suicide have created motivation to spread
the courage to ask the tough questions.
“Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem,” Pacucci reasons. “Ours is a
tough-guy neighborhood, but it doesn't
need to be. We can do more to bring awareness by being there to get each other's backs
and not just when we're working. We need to
be there for each other in the good times and
the hard times.”
Dr. Stef comments that the hard times are
making the phone ring 24-7. More and more
criminals are out there targeting cops, and
more and more members of the community,
media and political sector are questioning
any time law enforcement officers use any
kind of force. That is old news.
The tough-guy mentality that asking for
help or asking a