Focused on officer well-being
Team monitoring physical, mental health of officers and civilian staff
WATERLOO REGION — As a front-line officer and years spent in the detective branch working on sudden deaths, robberies and serious assaults, Staff Sgt. Dean Smith had plenty of tough calls.
But as a police officer you deal with it and move on to the next call.
“Nobody came to me and said, ‘How are you doing?’ ” said the 26-year veteran officer with Waterloo Regional Police.
Today, Smith along with civilian Shelley Howes run the service’s wellness unit, monitoring the physical and mental health of officers and civilian staff.
The brainchild of Police Chief Bryan Larkin, the wellness unit was created after Larkin became chief nearly three years ago.
The idea of officer and civilian wellness isn’t unique to Waterloo Region. It’s a trend first-responders are moving toward to ensure their members are coping with the stress of the job and that they are in good physical and mental health to stay on the job.
Locally, the wellness unit has been operating for about two years under the leadership of Smith and wellness co-ordinator Howes. Both are veteran employees of the service and have a good working rapport with employees.
Their job is to ensure anyone who needs help knows where they can go to get it.
“The primary goal is to ensure the proper resources are in place to support the mental health of members,” Howes said.
“The important part is educating members and generating conversation,” Smith added.
Each day, Smith begins his day reviewing the previous day’s calls for service.
He looks for calls that police respond to that might have been challenging. Those calls can range from a suicide call, a sudden death or a traffic collision.
“I reach out to the supervisor and ask them to reach out to the officer,” he said.
It also means contacting the manager in the 911 dispatch centre. The 911 dispatch employees are similar to front-line staff because they are the ones taking the initial call.
It’s what Smith refers to as early intervention and a step in prevention.
“We are opening the doors to have the conversation,” he said.
Smith said the cultural shift is happening and “people have been receptive.”
A year ago at a meeting on mental health and how to cope, only one employee raised a hand when asked about battling the issue on the job. A similar meeting a few months ago had dozens of people raise their hands.
“It doesn’t mean everyone needs care, but they are saying there have been tough times,” he said. “Life has its ups and downs.”
“It starts with awareness,” Howes said.
“Police agencies didn’t present on this topic even five years ago.”
Smith said he hopes in time, supervisors will check in with their officers and employees as a normal part of the day. He’s noticed some supervisors respond promptly to his email and say they have already checked in with the officer.
“The culture is changing because the leadership is changing,” he said.
“Ideally we keep people healthy rather them returning them to good health,” Smith said.
But the wellness unit also works with those employees who are on sick leave or those coping with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
In 2016, the provincial government amended legislation regarding PTSD; first responders such as police and paramedics are now covered by presumptive legislation for the disorder.
The province also asked police services to have a plan in place to deal with PTSD by April 2017.
In 2016, 7.3 per cent of Workplace Safety and Insurance Board claims from the local police service were related to PTSD. This year, the number increased to 11.6 per cent.
For new employees, training also involves a two-hour session in which employees invite their spouse, partner or parents to come in to ensure they also understand the demands of the job.
There will be emotional moments but “if it morphs into something different, knowing when to ask for help ... that is a shift in policing,” Howes said.
The unit also revamped an existing peer-to-peer support program. Officers now check in with their colleagues who may have been involved in critical incidents.
Larkin made it mandatory for every employee to have four hours of training on mental readiness, while senior leaders take eight hours of training.
The unit also holds “safeguarding” interviews for officers entering and leaving specialized branches such as homicide, traffic or major crime. An online survey is offered to each member and the officer meets with a psychologist.
The unit is also planning on holding annual “mental health check-ins” with officers in the specialty branches.