PTSD and Career Trauma leads to Officer Misconduct

Do you remember your first day on the job??

Like most,?you?couldn’t wait to get out of the academy and on to the actual job.?

After years of public service, witnessing?traumatic events?(most will never see),?Cumulative Career Trauma can set in. These long-term effects of PTSD may lead to substance abuse, aggression, and suicide. Over 15 percent of officers in the U.S. experience PTSD.

Bringing awareness of PTSD, CCTS, and officer wellness is the key to a long, healthy career in public service. But, not everyone knows they need help, or knows how to ask for it. Since 2015,?RITE Classes have been taught?to over 1200 public service agencies the concepts of Emotional Intelligence to improve Officer Well-being. Start somewhere.

Glass Half-Empty

Mental stress of the job can bring anyone to their knees. Your glass goes from mostly full, to half-empty, and for some… glass EMPTY. Thoughts of, “I’m not okay” creep in, yet you don’t know why, and you don’t know how to get help.?

Your glass is EMPTY, and you may be thinking it’s time to leave the profession, jump to another agency, or even something drastic like self-destruction.?

Left unchecked, you could be a ‘ticking-time bomb’ inside the agency, where you take it out on your co-workers or the community that you serve.

?4 Stages of Cumulative Career Trauma

Emotional Intelligence and Officer Wellness training works:?

• Learning to VALUE?yourself and understanding your own emotions.?
• Care about others?starts with caring about you first.?
• Empathy leaves an impression?inside the agency and out in the community. Empathy says “I care how you feel, and I am here for you”.

Benefits of Leaders gaining Emotional Intelligence:

1. Retention of Employees
2. Reduction of Misconduct and Complaints
3. Reinforce a Professional Workplace?
4. Peer Support, Crisis Intervention, and Mental Health Advocates?
5. Mental Wellness – PTSD, Career Cumulative Trauma Awareness

When Career Cumulative Trauma is left unchecked, it will lead to increased misconduct, lawsuits, and/or the loss of life (employee and/or community member), community distrust, and demoralizing of the agency as whole.?

Since 2015, RITE Academy is proud to have trained over 970 trainers across the United States. RITE teaches trainers on how to?recognize the signs of PTS(D)?and Cumulative Career Trauma. Mental Health Wellness is key to employee retention and a long-last career in public service.

As a SWAT Commander, Father, and Career Law Enforcement Professional he exemplified the RITE principles of knowing first-hand the importance of mental health awareness in public service.?

Major Trill dedicated his life to helping employees inside his agency become healthier, and stronger mentally. As a RITE Trainer, he helped build employee value inside the agency, while providing better service to the community.?

?On Behalf of all the RITE Trainers, we will always be appreciative for his amazing work in public service.?

In 2016, Trill spoke on camera (below), just after he was certified as a RITE Trainer. We will continue to share this video in class as we’ve always done, to keep his words and memory alive. RIP Sir.

He said, “If it works on me, pretty much any police officer can use it.”