y
t
t
:
e
d
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Cops aFalling
to geth
er
g
n
i
r
e
w
s
in an t
he
Neale Donald
Walsch, author of
the Conversations
with God book
series, said it best
during an interview when he
CHERIE
stated,
“When
CASTELLANO
your life feels as if
LPC
it's falling apart, it
may just be falling
together for the first time.”
“Falling apart” is such a common phrase when people
describe problems or crisis, and “falling together” is the phrase I
hope to replace it with in 2016. The NJSPBA team, and our team
at Cop 2 Cop, have fallen together in the fight against suicide
since 2008, and we are unified in our service to the law enforcement community. A current media frenzy about police suicide
prompted a police suicide focus for this article, but it has been
the focus of my life and career for 17 years.
If you’re a cop for 17 years does that make you an expert in law
enforcement, or does it afford you the ability to understand why
criminals do what they do? Similarly, I am not sure that the years
of work make me an expert in police suicide, but I do know some
simple truths that may help to answer the never-ending question
of “Why?” that I am asked by widows, partners, chiefs, delegates,
clinicians and the media.
The answer is that for officers who are suffering, suicide is not
the problem; it is the solution to stopping the pain of living.
There is no long contemplation on courage or character; no consideration for the impact their deaths will have on their kids or
department; no realization that they were surrounded by people
and support that could save them. Simply put, for an officer who
is not of sound mind at that moment with quick access to a gun,
it is a solution in that moment of time to end the suffering of living. Because we are of sound mind while we try to understand
this point, it does not seem like an acceptable or relatable
answer. But it is a solution to those who do it. Many officers who
have attempted suicide - some of whom I have counseled personally - have shared their experiences and thoughts about having attempted suicide and lived, so I trust their words.
Reflecting on the many years I have been dedicated to this
work, a few issues became clear about our current crisis and how
we can all do more in this fight. Some quick facts to consider are
that there are more than 50,000 law enforcement professionals
in New Jersey, and that when we track suicides, we are the only
state in the country with access to track both active and retired
officers, as well as explore their experiences through our data and
psychological autopsies to analyze trends or patterns to the
losses each year. Back in 2008, when the NJSPBA led the effort to
‘Why?’
create the Governor’s Task Force on Police
Suicide, 18 months of expert analysis created a comprehensive report and recommendations. The report recommended to
give special support to high-risk groups
like corrections officers and wounded
officers; market and encourage the use of
Cop 2 Cop; create clinical services that are
specialized in treating law enforcement;
and do suicide-prevention training.
We did all of this, and we had 19
suicides in 2015.
So what went wrong? Here we go with the “why” question
again.
Just like you investigate and examine a crime scene for clues,
we do the same in our field. Of the 19 suicides in 2015, Cop 2 Cop
had only brief contact with one of the officers. So much for marketing and increasing utilization of our services: these officers
never gave us a chance to help them. Many of the officers were
from a variety of agencies and they were much younger this year
than ever, so the trends we followed in the past did not add up to
target corrections officers or retired officers. The three problems
we have seen in the past were not clear this year: the
combination of marital or family issues, substance abuse and a
work stressor like an IA. We also identified that we did not do Cop
2 Cop “QPR Suicide Prevention Training” in many of these agencies where officers died by suicide.
It seems that stress related to trauma exposure may be a link,
but it was not a clear pattern that led to an answer to “Why?”
Most used guns, which also makes me wonder whether we have
gone so far away from the “rubber gun squad” movement that we
are doing an injustice to an officer at-risk to avoid pissing someone off. Maybe they would be mad, but alive. Because of confidentiality and the brotherhood we all share in supporting cops,
I am not sure how the gun issue factors in moving forward.
We focus so much on the suicide losses when statistically we
must realize a larger number of officers are resilient and thriving.
More of you are getting it right than wrong, and those of us supporting you are getting it right, too. Since we started at Cop 2 Cop,
we have had more than 220 rescues in which we have spoken to,
or responded to, an officer at risk for suicide or in process, and
we have worked together with them and they are alive today. We
have had 30,000-plus contacts with officers in New Jersey, trained
5,000 cops in QPR, and do about 100 Crisis Debriefings a year. Dr.
Gene Stefanelli is always booked at the PBA offices providing
expert treatment and the NJSPBA leadership has embraced a
team approach to integrating delegates into the fight against suicide, so a lot is going right. But it still is not enough, right?
CONTINUED ON PAGE 34
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