THE BADGE OF LIFE

BOARD

CURRENT MYTHS SURVIVORS RETIREES

PRESCRIPTION DEPARTMENT ACADEMY

GUESTBOOK

Emotional Self-care Training at the Academy

Our academies produce "Superhumans" trained to believe they are unique and apart from all of society.

But are they prepared for 20 and 30 years of combined critical and cumulative trauma? Will

"Ew-RAH" really carry the day if they don't know the art of self care?


We teach all these survival tricks and more throughout the officer's career. But we let them die psychologically. Why?

Whether for your academy or squad, finding the right balance of time for an effective presentation is always difficult. Length doesn't necessarily mean quality, nor does brevity necessarily mean impact. But it must be there.

While this training has great value to veteran officers, we're convinced that the greatest long-term impact will be in the training we give cadets and how well we can implant in each of them the importance of "prevention" through annual therapy visits. For a department, this training must be "cradle to the grave."

Stories of trauma are not always "heroic," the ones that evoke immediate sympathy from the public, that are easy to "admit to." You know the stories to which we refer--these are the stories of mistakes that may have harmed others, of fears, of self- perceived "cowardice" or failure, of letting down the uniform. These are what they call the "dirty little secrets," and they begin the first day of the uniform.

Once they graduate, we owe more to our officers than several visits to an EAP counselor when they're "in trouble and need help."


An EAP ad in a major client-police agency's in-house magazine. A concierge service is a novelty, but why such shyness about stress and trauma? The fear is, "If we say 'those words,' we'll scare them away."

They deserve the guidance by which they can maintain career-long mental health to anticipate, be prepared for, and know how to react to stress and trauma before it happens--instead of trying to pick up the pieces afterwards. This means training at the academy--meaningful training that requires the abandonment of precious hours of marching and standing time--and continuing it at least annually throught their career.

Police work can cause suicides, whether we like to admit it or not. But for every suicide, there are a thousand officers out there, still working and silently suffering from undiagnosed PTSD, depression and other anxiety problems. What are we doing for them?

A NOTE ABOUT TODAY’S CADET CLASSES


	Photo by Lorcan Ortway

One of the things we already have seen as an advantage is that today’s cadets are far ahead of past generations when it comes to recognizing the validity and value of therapy.

They have seen family members go.

They have gone themselves, perhaps during school or with family.

They know people who have suffered a variety of mental illnesses, such as depression, and they attach no stigma to it.

They are, as we have seen in class after class, receptive to the idea of Emotional Self Care (ESC) Training.

Why throw away this opportunity?

It's up to you.

Check out our free videos and instructional materials on our RESOURCES PAGE

All services and materials provided by Badge of Life are free. We do not charge speaker fees. As retired officers and clinicians, our payment is working to save the lives of officers on the streets. Your donations, however, help us greatly in accomplishing that mission.

The Badge of Life is an IRS Approved 501(c)(3) Charitable Organization and all donations are tax deductible. All services and materials provided by the Badge of Life are free of charge. The entire content of this website is copyrighted. All photographs are copyrighted to the photographers noted. For permissions on the written content of this website, contact us at Badge of Life.

___________________________________________________