Film captures trauma of first responders
Documentarian seeks to bolster services for mental health issues.
They’ve lost colleagues to suicide, had people die in their arms, seen horrifying injuries and had to tell family members about a loved one’s death.
It takes a toll on law enforcement officers, firefighters and other first responders, and a San Diego filmmaker is telling their stories in the new 30-minute documentary “Keeping the Peace,” which premiered at the University of San Diego last week before an audience that included police officers, sheriff ’s deputies and paramedics.
Sara Gilman, president of the Encinitas counseling service Coherence Associates Inc., discussed the importance of making mental health care available for first responders in a keynote address before the screening.
“I have seen the look of fear and sadness in officers’ eyes when they have come upon the last and latest wreckage of the human condition,” she said. “Their reaction is not the problem. This is their humanity. Their compassionate hearts being exposed to human pain and suffering over and over and over for decades. And they say it’s just part of the job.”
Gilman, a mental health critical-incident responder who has worked with police and sheriff ’s deputies in the field, said there has been significant progress over the last 30 years in making counselors, peer support and chaplains available when they are needed.
Director James Ellis, owner of Legacy Productions, said he started work on the film about a year ago as a way of promoting mental health services among emergency workers while also helping the community understand the trauma often experienced by law enforcement officers.
The nonprofit Badge of Life has reported that law enforcement officers are 1.5 times more likely to commit suicide than the general population, although last year the organization stopped its annual reports after finding data on unreported suicides was not accurate.
El Cajon Police Chief Jeff Davis, who appears in the documentary, addressed suicide in a panel discussion after the film screening.
“I think it’s ironic that we spend so many resources in our police academy and in service training recognizing potential threats and taking measures to mitigate them with policies, practices and procedures, but in 2018 more of us took our own lives than were killed in the line of duty,” he said. “So where’s the threat?”
The film features San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit, San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore, retired SDPD Assistant Chief Sarah Creighton, SDPD Chaplain Erin Hubbard and officers from National City, La Mesa, the Border Patrol, Anaheim and Santa Barbara.
Interviews included several tales of the emotional trauma experienced by officers from various departments. Retired California Department of Justice Special Agent Victor Resendez recalled the time he broke the news of a son’s death to his parents and sister.
“I went to the house and told the mother, the father, and the 5-year-old sister, and she gave me a teddy bear and said, ‘My brother gave me this. Can you take it and put it with him?’ ” he said, barely able to speak through the tears brought on by the memory. “Wow, I remember that.”
In the documentary, Nisleit said the San Diego Police Department has a robust program to help officers deal with posttraumatic stress.
“When I address the new troops I say, ‘I need a healthy you,’ ” he said in the film. “I need a healthy you at home. I need a healthy you at work. It’s OK for you to go and talk. In fact, I want you to go talk to those folks.”
Ellis said he has received a grant from the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to develop a mental health program based around his film over the next two years, and he has partnered with the Institute on Violence, Abuse and Trauma to work with other police departments across the state.
Warth writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.