Trauma on the Job: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Law Enforcement Officers
As we have learned throughout this course, PTSD is prevalent among many people and professions. However, being a law enforcement officer, PTSD is a personal concern because every police officer is one situation or call away from experiencing something stressful and traumatizing that could end up causing them to suffer from PTSD. PTSD can commonly be linked to the inability to sleep, nightmares, intrusive memories that don’t fade in intensity, physical reactions to places or other things associated with the event, the feeling of always being on guard or, by contrast, feeling numb (Lexipol, 2016). Karen Lansing, a licensed psychotherapist and Diplomate of the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress, states “it’s tempting to associate PTSD with a single incident, stressing that it is often caused by exposure to numerous traumatic incidents over several years or, in some cases, an entire career. I typically see what we call cumulative PTSD” (Lexipol, 2016). Additionally, Lansing states “Incidents involving shootings or improvised explosive devices will often open the door. It’s easier for an officer to come in after one of those incidents because everyone understands that they should be talking about it. But the shooting or ‘things that go bang’ are just the latest incident sitting on top of a stack of other traumatic incidents” (Lexipol, 2016).
Dealing with PTSD in law enforcement provides its own challenges and obstacles, but other challenges these officers face are what treatments are available and effective to help law enforcement officers deal with PTSD. Lansing uses a technique called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), where Lansing acts almost like a Field Training Officer, guiding the officer through a process of reliving the incident, resolving the trauma, and then mining it for any learning points it has to offer that could be important in the future. EMDR allows the brain to reprocess the incident to full resolution in a safe environment. “The officer is in full control, with me riding shotgun should he need some back-up if things get hung up” (Lexipol, 2016). Lansing says she begins the process of EMDR by tending to the most highly triggering event first such as an officer involved shooting. She states that once this memory is neutralized or the officer is at peace with it, she then moves on to what flashback comes next. Lansing continues to knock these memories off one by one until the officer is feeling better.
As important as these therapy sessions are to officers suffering with PTSD, I have argued and as this course has proved, leadership and administration of police departments are just as critical and important in helping officers deal with PTSD. Lansing states that she can take care neutralizing PTSD easily through therapy sessions, however if she encounters trauma after she neutralizes the event due to poor leadership, she might not be able to succeed and help the officer. “In all of the many hundreds she has helped return fully to the job after treating their PTSD, there are nine who Lansing was not able to return, six in one law enforcement agency and three in another. These were very troubled agencies and all nine were lost due to this leadership issue” (Lexipol, 2016) In order to overcome the obstacles of poor leadership, Lansing believes “training first responders as well as ensuring that officers get at least seven hours of sleep and receive early clinical interventions, such as department-wide annual check-ins with a psychotherapist. Since 2008, she’s also focused on the need for better leadership training” (Lexipol, 2016).
This information and study completed by Lansing has really solidified the need in my opinion for all police departments to start early intervention when an officer is exposed to a traumatic event. My department offers peer counselors to any officer who needs someone to talk to if they are having trouble. The issue with this is that most police officers that I know don’t like to be seen as weak and will never admit that they are suffering or need help. As Lansing states, good leadership and training is needed so that everyone in a department is aware of the effects that PTSD can have on a person. Creating a culture that embraces the impact that PTSD has on its officers starts at the top and trickles down through leadership and training. Being able to understand this so that an officer doesn’t feel the need to suppress their feelings, so they aren’t seen as weak or vulnerable by their peers is imperative to combat PTSD. Overall, PTSD is prevalent in law enforcement and through this course, studies, and my own experience, it is nothing to take lightly and finding ways to help those officers suffering from PTSD is a collaborative effort by everyone in a department.
References:
Lexipol (2016). Trauma on the Job: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Law Enforcement Officers. Retrieved April 21, 2022 from https://www.lexipol.com/resources/blog/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-law-enforcement-officers/