Suicide preventions for law enforcement officers

Suicide preventions for law enforcement officers

Introduction

Suicide is one of the major challenges facing law enforcement officers in modern society. Research has revealed that police officers are usually at the highest risk of committing suicide as compared to any other profession. Current statistics have shown that the total number of police officers who die due to suicide is three times the total number of law enforcement officers who die from injuries acquired in their line of duty. Researchers have embarked on a study to create a better understanding of the challenge of increased suicide among law enforcement officers. Some researchers have attributed to the increased rate of suicidal incidents among the law enforcement officers to the combination of intense stress, deadly weapons, and human devastation that the law enforcement officers are subjected to on a daily basis.

The safety of law enforcement officers of critical importance and is usually the concern of every law enforcement executive. Every law enforcement officers work hard to ensure that every law enforcement officer under their care returns to their home safely once they have completed their duties. Also, work hard to ensure their officers live a healthy life. This enables them to be in a good state of mind and body to effective deliver their services. This has helped to create a culture that embraces physical safety and wellness for the officers. In order for the officer’s physical safety to be enhanced, precautions are reinforced through training requirements and official policy statements. Different measures have been implemented to improve the safety of law enforcement officers. Some of these measures include providing law enforcement officers with bullet proof vests, undertaking firearm training, availing seat belts to the officers for self-defense and finally enhancing physical safety in all departments.

However, despite implementing all these measures to enhance the officers physical safety, some areas, especially regarding to the officers mental health and their wellbeing. Individuals responsible in ensuring that officers are in the right state of mind have failed to it right attention. Law enforcement body has made it culture that no one is supposed to acknowledge the existence of mental health issues as this is considered a sign of weakness. Soldiers who demonstrates signs of mental issues due to work pressure are ridiculed and are considered unfit for this kind of work. In some worse circumstances, they may end up even losing their job/responsibilities to other officers who appear to be strong in handling the daily charges they encounter at work. This is because the law enforcement professional prides itself on heroism and bravery and, therefore, does not entertain signs of weakness.

It is important to note that law enforcement officers are human beings and are, therefore, not immune to anxiety, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression and stress. The experiences that these individuals go through service delivery makes them more susceptible to mental illness that may result in trauma as well as chronic stress conditions. Since the profession has adopted the culture of bravery and heroism, these individuals are forced to live in denial as not want to acknowledge that they are suffering medical illness as this would make appear weak. They, therefore, remain is silence which puts their life in danger. Even in circumstances where these individuals considers seeking help for their condition, they find limited resources to accord them the necessary support that they require. The paper will address the challenge of suicide within the law enforcement profession and the risk factors for committing suicide. The paper will also address possible strategies that can be implemented to prevent suicide among law enforcement officials.

Literature Review

The failure to treat mental illnesses may have several consequences to a person’s life. Suicide has been characterized as one of the most catastrophic consequence of failure to treat mental illness. Mental illness is caused by several conditions which include PTSD, depression or trauma. Research has shown that people start considering suicide as an alternative solution to their predicaments after all other alternatives proves infertile. Research has shown that if the necessary support is accorded to potential victims of suicide, these individuals may reconsider their decision. Unfortunately, in the law enforcement profession, law enforcement officers are not accorded the necessary support to deal with their mental challenges that may tempt these officers to commit suicide. To make it even worse, whenever a police officer dies of suicide, agencies do not care to find out the reason that may have persuaded the person to commit an action. This is contrary to other causes of death. For example, in case a law enforcement officer is killed in a road accident or dies due to violence, agencies conduct thorough investigation to determine what exactly transpired that result in the death of officer and were it occurred. Conducting such investigations facilitates the development of new policies that avoid a repeat of such cases and developing of new training programs to help the officers. Lack of investigation in cases of suicide put others at the risk of following the same route when they find themselves in the same situation.

For a long time, people have under estimated the rate at which law enforcement officers commit suicide. According to current researches, the law enforcement profession is one of the leading professions with the highest rate of suicide. According to Dr. Paul Quinnett of the University Of Washington School Of Medicine, there are usually many cases of officer’s suicide attempts that go unnoticed and, therefore, these cases are not recorded. Dr. Quinnett stated that in every one case of successful suicide, there are usually close to 25 attempts. Unfortunately, due to lack adequate attention by the responsible agencies on suicidal behaviors or ideation of their officers, these attempts become unnoticed. Due to the lack of comprehensive research and agency awareness on the matter, it becomes relatively difficult to sell campaigns relating to mental wellness and suicide prevention.

Research has however, shown that suicide is a challenge for the entire generation. According to study conducted the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention in 2009, it revealed that suicide is among the top ten cause of death to the general population. The study revealed that the rate of suicide deaths recorded is twice compared to that of homicide. In the law enforcement profession, data collected in 2012 revealed that forty-seven officers were killed feloniously while thirty-nine off the officers were killed in road accidents. However, the report revealed there were twice the number of individual who died as a result of suicide compared to those who were involved in road accidents and assaults.

There are several risk factors associated with rise in suicide among law enforcement officials. These factors include stigmatization for seeking medical care when one is not in the right state of mind, depression, cumulative effects of trauma, masking as well as drug abuse. Post-traumatic stress disorder and easy access of fire arms are also risk factors for committing suicide. For instance, there are many cases where law enforcement officers have committed suicide by use of their arms. This makes it easy for such officers to just take the arm and shoot themselves on the head.

As mentioned above, although investigation are carried out when an officer commits murder, these investigations are not carried out deep manner compared to other cases, for example those of death caused by violence. Poor investigations results to lack of adequate information of what may have made the individual to commit suicide. This becomes a major challenge in the process of developing appropriate suicide prevention strategies as there is no comprehensive and accurate data to guide the process.

Research Methods

The research used qualitative meta-analysis research method to identify the most effective preventive measures that can be used to control the rising incidences of suicides among the law enforcement officers. Information was obtained from articles that addressed the issue of suicide among law enforcement officers. Article eligible for the research included those that had their proposed prevention programs evaluated, those that that had their proposed prevention programs implemented to either current or active employees in the law enforcement. Some articles were also excluded from the study in case of the following; the participants in the study have a history psychiatric disorder or have ever been recruited in a psychiatric treatment facility, participants had a history of suicide attempts and articles whose participants were either returned or veteran law enforcement officers. The articles that were approved for the study were then evaluate and analyzed to identify effective intervention measures and programs that can help control the rising cases of suicide among the law enforcement officers.

Data Analysis

The

Findings & Interpretation

Results from articles analysis support the information in the literature review about the rising cases of suicide in the law enforcement profession. Some articles have also confirmed that there are usually many cases of suicide attempts that are usually not document since most of them go unnoticed. Results from the review of the research articles shows that the rising incidences of suicide among the law enforcement officer can be controlled through the implementation of several preventive measures.

The research found that depression is a major risk factor for the law enforcement officials to commit suicide. It therefore implies that for the condition to be controlled, measures that will help identify depressed officers should be implemented. These can be achieved through routine mental health check-up. All law enforcement officers should under do a routine mental checkup, for example one in a year to check their mental condition. These check-up will help in enhancing the officer mental wellness. Some law enforcement officers have already implemented programs for regular mental programs, for example, the “Check Up from the Neck Up” program of MN police department in Plymouth. Under this program, all law enforcement officers regardless of their rank are required to visit a mental health practitioner once a year for mental assessment. This strategy has some benefits over the other strategies of preventing police suicide since they are able to identify officer who are not in their right state of mind thus likely to commit suicide. This helps to intervene and provide the necessary support to make the person change his or her mind.

Still on mental checkup, the research also recommends that the law enforcement department should ensure that medical evaluators undertake suicide risk assessments every time they suspect that a law enforcement officer is likely to commit suicide. The law enforcement department should allow their officers to make voluntary but confidential visits for at least two hours every eighteen months. The advantage of coming up with such a program is that it will help eliminate the stigmatization that law enforcement officers face in seeking mental health services. The visits should remain highly confidential between the law enforcement officers and the therapist. Follow-up after the visit should also be encouraged to determine whether the officers were satisfied with the help offered.

Collecting accurate data on the incidences of suicide among law enforcement officers can also help control suicide in the profession. From the article, it is evident that there is no accurate data concerning death of law enforcement officers. Although blue H.E.L.P is doing a good job in collecting and storing data on law enforcement officers who have committed suicide, the federal government also needs to step in and take the issue seriously. Collecting accurate data will help researchers and policing professionals to understand the full extent of the condition so that they can come up with programs and strategies to control law enforcement officers. The lack of accurate data make these individuals to overlook the challenges that law enforcement officers are going through.

Peer support is also an important intervention to reduce the rising incidences of suicide among the law enforcement officers. From the research, it was evident that law enforcement officers trust other officers who are trained in basic listening skills techniques more than mental health professionals. Research shows the trust of peer officers is usually as a result of shared experiences. The officers believe that since these officers have the experience of the challenges that the officers encountered they are in a better position to offer support to the other officers unlike medical therapist who only assumes the challenges that these individuals might be facing. The law enforcement department should focus on offering adequate training to listening officers so that can offer adequate support to their fellow colleagues. Research shows that peer support helps to reduce suicide symptoms for the victims and also helps to improve social integration for the law enforcement officers which significantly reduces the probability of committing suicide.

Being mindful for the other person’s status is also an effective intervention strategy in controlling suicide among the law enforcement officers. It is an effective strategy to manage stress among the officers and also enhance their flexibility to deal with crises and trauma. The research also revealed a positive in potential victims of suicide in problem solving, attention control and altered stress responses.

The concept of gate keeping programs is also an effective strategy that can help control the suicide challenge in the law enforcement department. A gatekeeper refers to an individual with the ability to have a continuous contact with people in a given community. These individuals are specifically trained to identify individuals who are likely to commit suicide. Once these individuals are identified, the gatekeeper then intercedes to provide the necessary support that these people need to a change their mind. The law enforcement department according to a report published by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) under the title breaking the silence on Law Enforcement’s Suicides stated that the gatekeepers should be give special training that will enable them to identify the job-related experiences that are likely to result in post-traumatic stress disorder, stress and other mental health challenges. With this knowledge, the gate keepers can teach their colleagues skills that will enable them cope with the challenges that they encounter at work from time to time. Law enforcement officers can also be taught how to take advantage of available resources to avoid stress and depression which is likely to result in suicide.

Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) also appeared as an essential prevention strategy against suicide for the law enforcement officers. The program refers to a job-based program that operates in a given organization for the purpose of identifying employees who might be straggling with work-related stress. The programs can be implemented alongside gate keepers to solve the challenges that law enforcement officers are facing that are likely to result in the officers committing suicide. In addition to helping the patients deal with the stress and other challenges at work, it also helps to motivate the officers in delivering their services. The program is based on the idea that early detection and treatment for such conditions helps in eliminating employee absenteeism and other greater consequences that may include suicide.

Pre-employment psychological screening is yet another prevention strategy that can help is saving the lives of law enforcement officers lost through suicide. The law enforcement is one of the careers where robust screening is conducted to identify candidates that fit the job. Research has, however, revealed that the screening is mainly focused in the physical fitness of the candidate. More robust tests should be used to identify candidates who might be having pre-existing mental challenges so that they are not subject to a job that has a lot of stress which may persuade them to commit suicide. Research has shown that individuals with pre-existing mental health condition are usually predisposed to the challenges of working in an environment of high-risk and high-stress. The pre-employment strategies will, therefore, serve as a suicide prevention protocol showing how well a candidate will survive with the work stresses. This prevention strategy has already been implemented in the United States where almost all the law enforcement agencies conduct several psychological tests followed by a one on one interview to ensure that the candidate is the right state of mind. The strategy ought to be implemented in all the other parts of the world to control the rising cases of suicide among the law enforcement officers.

Law enforcement officers get negatively and emotional affected when one of their colleagues commit suicide especially when it is caused by the challenges that they encounter in daily operations. This may in one way or another persuade other officers to commit suicide as well thinking that it will help solve their challenges. This can be solved by a postvention that occurs following an act of suicide. The postvention strategy helps survivors of suicide, such as friends, family and colleagues in the department to deal with any temptation of suicide. It also helps the law department to adjust for such tragedies.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it is evident that suicide among law enforcement officials is a major problem that needs to be addressed as soon as possible. The rates of death has increased at an alarming rate in the recent years thus calling for appropriate intervention and preventive measures to address the challenge. Research has identified several factors that are believed to be the risk factors for officers to commit suicide. These factors include depression, drug abuse, PTSD, and misleading culture in the law enforcement in which officers are expected to be brave and therefore should not seek help for medical challenges. Addressing these factors is one of the measures that can help address the problem of suicide among police officers. However, coming up with preventive techniques has proved to be challenging to some extent. For one, there is no adequate data on what persuades officers to commit suicide. Unlike other forms of death, such as, death through road accident or violence where thorough investigations are conducted, death through suicide receives little attention. This makes it difficult for the agencies to come up with measures that will help reduce the rising cases of officer’s death by suicide.

Fortunately, a meta-analysis research that was conducted by analyzing several article with information on some of the proposed strategies that help prevent law enforcement officers from committing suicide identified some strategies that indeed can help to address the situation. Some of these strategies that were discussed in details in the previous section include; accurate collection of data on successful suicides and all the attempts that have taken place. This will ensure that responsible agencies understand the magnitude of the challenge. Routine mental status check-up also helps to identify law enforcement officers who might be straggling with conditions that are likely to persuade them into committing murder. Once individuals with mental challenges are identified, they are accorded the necessary support to ensure they do not commit suicide.

Enhancing peer support can also help address the problem. From the research, it was evident majority of the law enforcement officers like and trust their peers more than they trust medical psychologists because they have a better understanding of their experiences at work. Peer support should be strengthen so that they can offer their colleague support to deal with their challenges. Other strategies identified include; the use of gatekeeping, Employee Assessment Programs, and pre-employment psychological screening. The pre-employment screening has already been implemented in the United States had has proved to be effective. The implementation of these strategies and programs will help reduce the cases of law enforcement officers committing suicide due to lack of help.