Police force applauded for mental-health support
WENDY GILLIS AND JENNA MOON The decision to make a psychological support team available to police officers on site in the aftermath of Monday’s van rampage is being lauded by a psychologist specializing in first-responder mental health.
“It’s a good sign that they’re being proactive, that they’re not waiting,” said Dr. Jeff Morley, a former RCMP officer who works as a psychologist helping police officers, soldiers and other emergency personnel process traumatic incidents.
“It validates that these scenes are horrific, not only for the officers, but for fire, ambulance, for the civilians and witnesses of these atrocities,” Morley said.
Toronto police Deputy Chief Peter Yuen told reporters at a press conference Wednesday that mental-health staff were quickly made available to frontline officers, who were coming off a shift that saw scenes un- precedented in Toronto.
Among the cops who received psychological support is Toronto police Const. Ken Lam. He is the officer who apprehended Alek Minassian after he is alleged to have deliberately struck pedestrians on a busy stretch of Yonge St. on Monday, killing 10 and injuring 14.
Lam, 42, who joined the Toronto police in 2011, has been praised for his calm takedown of Minassian. He was working as a traffic response officer Monday and was not assigned to Yonge and Finch but ran in to help when the call went out, Yuen says.
Worldwide attention has been drawn to Lam since the arrest, but the officer hopes the focus will shift to other first responders on scene that day, said Yuen, who knows Lam well and spoke on his behalf. Yuen has called Lam regularly since Monday and says he is doing well. But the incident is weighing on his mind.
“Right now he’s still asking me, asking his colleagues: ‘Did I make the right decision? What if I opened fire that day, what would have happened?’ ”
The mental health support for police is “to ensure the officers know help is available,” Yuen said.
“The debriefers are trained to observe certain behavioural signs, because some officers are very talkative — that might not be a good thing. Some officers are very quiet — that might not be a good thing.”
Some aspects of what’s called “critical incident debriefing” — including discussing what transpired during a traumatic event — are mandatory for officers, while other forms of treatment will be optional, Yuen said.