Mental health initiatives for officers grew following wave of anti-police protests : NPR

ATLANTA — A day rarely goes by when Officer Jonnie Moeller-Reed’s eyes don’t fall on a small, framed photograph on the bookshelf in her office. It shows two smiling young men in casual, colorful shirts and shorts. Both died by suicide in the past few years. Looking at the photo of her late colleagues “is my daily reminder of what truly motivates me,” says Moeller-Reed, her voice quivering ever so slightly.

Moeller-Reed is a law enforcement veteran of 25 years and the wellness officer at the Marietta Police Department in suburban Atlanta. It’s a new position the agency created a year ago.

The move is part of a larger trend that’s tied to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020. Waves of anti-police protests swept the country, exacerbating the already poor state of officers’ mental health and bringing the issue onto a broader public radar.

“It was a catalyst moment — not just for social and racial justice in the U.S., but also for police officers’ mental health,” says Andy Carrier, a retired Georgia State Trooper and licensed clinical social worker.

The widespread anti-police sentiments contributed to a wave of resignations among law enforcement officers, creating a vicious cycle of understaffed departments and overworked and burned-out cops, adds Carrier, who is also chief operating officer of Valor Station, a mental health treatment facility in Augusta, Ga., that exclusively serves first-responders.

There had been concern for the mental health of law enforcement officers long before George Floyd became a household name. For example, officer wellness had been a pillar in the findings of President Obama’s 2015 Task Force on 21st Century Policing.

Research shows police officers are more likely to suffer from cardiac death at a much younger age than the general public. Rates of depression, burnout and post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, are significantly higher among police officers than in the civilian population. Some studies suggest that 30% of cops struggle with substance abuse — alcohol dependence is at the top of the list. In recent years, more police officers have died by suicide than were killed in the line of duty, according to the first-responder advocacy group First H.E.L.P.

Among the states leading officer wellness initiatives are New York, New Jersey, California and Texas, where larger public safety agencies have created dedicated wellness units and state legislatures have mandated and funded wellness initiatives for first-responders. Georgia is also among the more forward-thinking states, Carrier says.

The average law enforcement officer in the United States is exposed to 188 traumatic events over the span of their career, research suggests, compared with the average civilian adult experiencing two to three over their lifetime. There is also the cumulative stress of police work: the daily drips of violence, misery and death; the relentless staccato of calls that can spiral from mundane to dramatic in a split second.