Tag: PTSD

Fatigue and Injury Risk Reduction

With so many police departments struggling to maintain minimum staffing requirements and others working to avoid shortages due to massive numbers of retirements in the near future, administrators have resulted to increasing shift lengths. In some cases, shifts have been increased by 50% per day! The dreaded forced overtime! What happens when someone books off… Continue reading Fatigue and Injury Risk Reduction

Pain Behind the Badge

We want you to be aware of some life-saving training sponsored by Dirigo Safety! PAIN BEHIND THE BADGEStoic, bulletproof, and invincible, police officers hide their own personal suffering for a number of reasons. This training, Pain Behind the Badge is designed to promote officer safety, resilience, and wellness. The Pain Behind the Badge training is… Continue reading Pain Behind the Badge

Keeping the Peace at Home

author – Colby Mills, Ph.D. Dr. Mills is a clinical and public safety psychologist specializing in treatment of first responders and military veterans.  Dr. Mills spent a decade as a police psychologist with the Fairfax County Police Department.  Prior to that, he spent six years assessing and managing crisis situations as part of a mobile… Continue reading Keeping the Peace at Home

Have you seen GINA?

With all the difficulty departments are having trying to hire new police officers, some have embraced declining standards to answer the workforce shortages. Some departments have devolved from being very selective just 10 years ago to “can the candidate fog a mirror” and now, GINA. GINA has been with us for 13 years but it… Continue reading Have you seen GINA?

Peer Support & Confidentiality

The federal legislation, Senate Bill S. 3434, was signed into law last week. The Confidentiality Opportunities for Peer Support Act “COPS” protects the confidentiality of FEDERAL law enforcement officers who participate in peer support groups. The bill includes provisions for the development of a peer support best practices report to be publicly available in 2… Continue reading Peer Support & Confidentiality

Laughter is the Best Medicine

Smiling and laughing are important self-care behaviors that few people make the time for in their busy lives. That’s right, carving out time during the day to purposely laugh and smile are important activities that will improve your resilience. It may be hard to believe but it’s true, laughter is the best medicine. The simple… Continue reading Laughter is the Best Medicine

A Conversation with Deputy Chief JoAnne Fisk

JoAnne Fisk began her career in public service as many in law enforcement do, somewhat by happenstance and entirely unintentionally. But what started as a dare for her quickly became a life-long passion to help people. Her career now spanning four decades, JoAnne Fisk the Deputy Chief of Biddeford Police Department is showing no signs… Continue reading A Conversation with Deputy Chief JoAnne Fisk

Breaking down the barriers to treatment.

Some recently published research looking at wellness promotion and suicide prevention programs for police officers and active-duty military personnel found some interesting and perhaps unusually useful results. In this article the research has been distilled down to the most important takeaways. Looking at police officers in the United States, Thoen, Dodson, Manzo, Piña-Watson, and Trejos-Castillo… Continue reading Breaking down the barriers to treatment.