Phoenix Police Address Employee Mental Health With Three-Prong Approach

Press release from the City of Phoenix:

May 14, 2020

"The greatest threat to police officers is not bullets. The greatest threat to police officers is what happens to them here," Pastor Bob Fesmire, a volunteer chaplain at the Phoenix Police Department, said as he motioned to his heart.

A job in law enforcement is demanding: physically, emotionally, and mentally. With the month of May being Mental Health Awareness Month, we are taking a look at how the Phoenix Police Department's Employee Assistance Unit, or EAU, addresses mental health for its employees. "We, in law enforcement, are really bad – we like helping others, but sometimes we're bad at asking for help," Sgt. Jared Lowe with the department's Employee Assistance Unit said.

It’s Sgt. Lowe’s job to change that. As head of the EAU, he is tasked with caring for the overall wellness of the department’s nearly 4,000 sworn officers and staff.

"The stigma is that's a weakness in law enforcement, when the truth is what we're trying to do is talk about treating it more like physical therapy," Sgt. Lowe explained. No different than if you hurt your knee and you need therapy to build the strength. Well the brain is like a muscle."

He and his team of seven detectives take a three-prong approach to wellness. The first prong is peer support with the message that you are not alone. They do this through 24/7, confidential services to employees and their families for issues like anger, addiction, loss, divorce, or anything else that comes up on the job or at home. If more help is needed, they refer out – that's where the second prong comes in. Crisis Preparation Recovery, or CPR, is a behavioral health company contracted by Phoenix Police.

"You have to have folks who understand what it's like to run towards the sound of gun fire instead of away – who can relate to that," Tom McSherry, President and Founder of CPR, said. "But it's also important to have the behavioral health, mental health, training component. To make sure that nothing is missed." CPR provides clinicians including social workers, licensed counselors, psychologists, and psychiatrists. These clinicians have office hours at the Phoenix Police headquarters four days a week, six hours a day. "I think it really comes down to an understanding and awareness that we need to take as good or better care of the operator as we do the equipment," McSherry explained. "And I think in the past, it's been one more of focus on the equipment and not the operator. "

The final prong of the three-prong approach is spirituality. Pastor Bob Fesmire is one of five volunteer chaplains available to Phoenix Police employees, day or night, should they want it. He works mostly out of his truck, responding to critical incident scenes, visiting injured officers in the hospital, or meeting up with officers or their families outside of work. "It's what happens, and what they see, what they hear, what they smell, what they touch, what they experience, everyday of our lives," Pastor Bob said. "As that accumulates, within their life and over the course of their career, it can create a lot of strain on them and their families. So we protect them as they protect us."You can access mental health resources online at websites like the National Alliance on Mental Health, MentalHealth.gov, or the Suicide Prevention Lifeline. If you are an employee of the Phoenix Police Department, you can learn more about the Employee Assistance Unit services on Police Point.

This press release was produced by the City of Phoenix. The views expressed here are the author’s own.