GCSD, hospital partner on PSA
Every day, law enforcement officers put their lives at risk serving and protecting the community, but often that risk does not vanish once the badge is removed.
The leading killer of law enforcement officers nationwide is suicide, and Arkansas ranked 10th in the nation for law enforcement suicides in 2015, according to statistics from Suicide Prevention Allies.
These “modern warriors” face “extreme violence and extreme stress from a multitude of sources” every single day, Garland County Sheriff Mike McCormick said Wednesday, noting those stressors encountered at work may follow them home and stay with them for months, or even years.
CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs and the sheriff’s department have teamed up to tackle a subject McCormick said has been avoided for far too long.
They gathered Wednesday in the Garland County Detention Center’s courtroom to present the first public service announcement in an upcoming series dealing with suicide and drug abuse among law enforcement.
“This PSA was especially intended to be a message from law enforcement to law enforcement,” McCormick said.
“We cannot overlook the staggering statistics associated with officer suicides, and it will take a united effort among all of us in law enforcement to make a difference. We all took oaths to protect citizens. We need to be better about protecting each other,” he said.
Although there was a 52-percent reduction in suicide rates among law enforcement in 2016, 108 officers committed suicide in that year alone. When looking at the occupations of suicide victims, the rates of suicide within law enforcement ranks at No. 6 for men, and No. 1 for women.
The PSA falls just short of three minutes, but CHI St. Vincent President Anthony Houston said he feels the “powerful … and passionate” message is clearly portrayed.
“Our law enforcement officers and first responders are truly heroes, but sometimes we forget they’re not invincible,” Houston said. “We want them to know that there are resources available to help them when they’re struggling, or in times of crisis.”
The PSA features Garland County Under Sheriff Jason Lawrence encouraging law enforcement officers to take suicide prevention efforts seriously, and look out for their fellow officers, a news release said. He directly asks law enforcement administrators to foster open dialogue about mental illness with their employees.
“It is imperative that we create an atmosphere within our agency in which our employees have the freedom and ability to talk about their problems and issues, so they do not fall victim to suicide,” Lawrence says in the PSA.
The new suicide prevention initiative at CHI St. Vincent was funded by a grant it received from its parent organization, Catholic Health Initiatives. The grant is specifically for violence prevention efforts, and typically, it is awarded to projects dealing with domestic violence or human trafficking.
Susie Reece, a violence prevention specialist working on the project, said Patrick McCruden, senior vice president for mission integration at CHI St. Vincent, noticed all the “wonderful work” being done by Suicide Prevention Allies, formerly known as the Garland County Suicide Prevention Coalition, and decided the grant could be used to promote suicide prevention.
Reece was already volunteering with the group when McCruden approached her with the idea. The funding was procured, and she spearheaded the project.
Reece is very passionate about working on suicide prevention, having lost her own father to suicide when she was 10 years old. Her father was approaching retirement from the military around the time he took his own life.
“(My father’s death) is definitely something that drives what I’m doing,” Reece said.
“It has empowered me in a lot of ways, and it’s made this mission even more important because I will get calls a child has lost their parent and I don’t want that anymore. I don’t want anyone to have to go through those experiences.”
The PSA is the first in a series of projects the hospital and sheriff’s department have partnered together to create. For now, the focus is working to prevent suicide among law enforcement, but they plan to include first responders, mental health professionals and members of the community.
“We’re hoping to start a discussion of law enforcement by law enforcement. … As this becomes more accepted, we will begin to expand our focus,” she said.