RCPD Program Addresses Officers’ Mental Health
A Rockville City Police Department (RCPD) program aimed at mental health and wellness is earning national attention for the department’s commitment to taking care of the men and women who serve and protect the Rockville community.
The program includes an eight-hour, state-approved class that is mandatory for sworn officers and optional for civilian RCPD staff. The class covers identifying mental health issues, using coping skills and intervention techniques, and the importance of family support and overall wellness, including good nutrition and physical fitness. Officers receive quick-reference cards that list in-the-moment coping techniques and resources that are available 24/7, year-round.
“Employees are our most valuable asset, and we must ensure not only their physical wellness, but their mental wellness also,” said acting Chief Bob Rappoport.
Each year, more officers die by suicide than are killed in the line of duty, according to the Community Oriented Policing Services of the U.S. Department of Justice.
With that in mind, the RCPD worked with the city’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to connect officers with mental health care providers, known as public safety specialists, who have experience working with first responders and their unique, repeated exposure to critical and traumatic events. EAP also provides annual mental health wellness check-ins, in which officers can visit a therapist, at no cost, to review any traumatic events from the past year and to discuss coping skills.
“With this program, our city police department is extremely progressive and light years ahead of other agencies, not only in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region, but the country,” said Cpl. J. Pfaehler, who led training sessions about the RCPD program at last month’s National Conference on Officer Wellness and Trauma, in Grapevine, Texas.
Other initiatives included publishing a booklet with information to help officers’ families better understand and cope with mental health issues, and increasing city police membership on the county police department’s Peer Support Team by 150 percent.
The department is planning training designed specifically for officers’ families and a social gathering for families to get to know each other better and form ad hoc support groups.