FOR62320 - Threats to Police Officer Wellness & Psychological Svcs in Law Enforcement

(3 units)

This course explores police officer wellness and the psychological services that help to maintain optimal functioning. The first half of the course focuses on the internal and external threats to officer wellness. The internal threats include maladaptive stress responses, the nature of fear, implicit bias and the role of heuristics, and the neurobiology of police wellness. External threats include the moral risks of policing, compassion fatigue and burnout, moral distress, moral injury, and other operational stress injuries. The course examines the rates of PTSD, the epidemic of police suicide, and the relationship between police wellness and ethics. The second half of the course focuses on psychological services in law enforcement organizations and covers models and strategies of intervention as well as initiatives for prevention. Interventions include traditional psychotherapeutic modalities and critical and traumatic incident response as well as specialized mental health services for first responders. Ancillary prevention and intervention services are explored including peer support, chaplaincy, dedicated wellness units, spouse auxiliary groups, and positive psychology workshops.