Erasing the mental health stigma for law enforcement
Therapy is often seen as taboo, especially in certain job fields. Police officers are perhaps one of the most important groups that should be seeking support, but the stigma surrounding therapy stops them. Many departments, however, are trying to defeat this stigma. In Washington D.C., a grant of $7 million dollars was created. The Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act would be used for access to better mental health care for law enforcement (Justice Department Announces Funding to Promote Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness, 2021). The funding would allow training, demonstration projects, new practices related to peer mentoring, mental health, wellness, and sucicide prevention programs (2021).
This isn’t the first act, and it definitely won’t be the last act, that aims to provide mental health resources to law enforcement. The more acts/grants that are created, the more the stigma around mental health will be erased for this field and others. Law enforcement professionals have hard jobs. They handle danger, pressure, and the responsibility of protecting the public. This alone creates a lot of stress on them. The global pandemic had only increased the amount of stress and worry on officers, nurses, etc. Now more than ever, we as a society should be focused on promoting mental health, not stigmatizing it in a negative way. Seeking therapy should be no different than going to the doctor for an illness. We need to be mentally healthy just as much as we do physically, especially when carrying out a job like police officers do.
Sources:
Justice Department Announces Funding to Promote Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness (2021, October 14). In Department of Justice. Retrieved from https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-funding-promote-law-enforcement-mental-health-and-wellness