Therapist/Doctorate Student California Baptist University Mira Loma, California, United States
Overview: Within the law enforcement community, suicide is more prevalent than dying in the line of duty which directly highlights a mental health crisis that exists. The current resources available for officers are outdated, inappropriate, and insufficient for the needs that continue to exist.Proposal text: Law enforcement officers are required to complete an array of tumultuous tasks all while protecting the lives of civilians, their sisters and brothers in uniforms, and ultimately themselves. On any given day, an officer can experience gun violence, natural disasters, physical brawls and assaults, and other various environments—all while running into the situation to resolve it rather than hiding or fleeing as most non-militarized civilians would do. The trauma that occurs within the daily shift of a law enforcement officer is unpredictable. Despite mental health being an epidemic even among the law enforcement community, Haecker (2018) reported the severe lack of underutilization of various resources provided to law enforcement officers. Currently, there is a lack of these resources available to officers, which creates a need that needs to be met. Despite the need for mental health services, an inherent cognitive dissonance occurs even when an officer is aware of their need for counseling, however has the strong internalized stigmatization of mental health.
