CopsAlive Attends Police Wellness Summit

I had a chance to travel to Portland Oregon last month where I was privileged to be part of a summit of experts on police wellness issues that was hosted by the Hazelden Springbrook Treatment Center.  Hazelden’s Springbrook campus, located 25 miles outside of Portland in Newberg, Oregon, provides adults ages 18 and over with a comprehensive range of clinical services to treat addiction.

Gathering for the summit were representatives from NYPD, Chicago PD, the San Diego Sheriff’s Office, and Seattle PD along with representatives from Safe Call Now, CopsAlive and former Police Commander… Chris Prochut who was representing “Bring Change to Mind” an organization that works to take the stigma out of mental illness.  We discussed many issues relating to police stress and it’s effects including addiction issues relating to alcohol and drugs, gambling and even internet pornography.  We also discussed issues surrounding police officer suicides.  The gathering was a excellent opportunity to exchange ideas and learn about other programs and resources.

The Hazelden Springbrook campus was an excellent setting for our meetings and gave us all a chance to see what their treatment center had to offer.  Hazelden Springbrook is recognized as a leader in the treatment of physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other licensed health care professionals and are now adding programs and services to treat law enforcement professionals suffering for addiction and trauma issues.  This new specialized integrated treatment for addiction and trauma is a very highly specialized, fully-integrated clinical care program for co-occurring trauma disorders.

After our meeting I wanted to bring to you some of the insights we gathered during our meetings and plan to provide you with information from, and interviews with, many of the experts from both the treatment side and the law enforcement side of these issues.  To get things started I interviewed two people from the Hazelden Springbrook Treatment Facility.  I spoke with Betsy Haverlandt, Springbrooks Marketing Director and Dr. Laura Ferguson, one of the psychiatrists on staff at the Springbrook facility.  Dr. Ferguson, who specializes in both general psychiatry as well as in addiction issues, has background working with veterans suffering from PTSD through the Veteran’s Administration.  She has translated that work and added her expertise with those of the other staff at Hazelden Springbrook to develop their new program treating addiction coupled with trauma for law enforcement professionals at their facility.

You can listen to our 38 minute interview here:

Or you can download the 7 MB mp3 file by RIGHT CLICKING HERE to download (that’s CONTROL CLICK if you use a Mac then SAVE LINK AS…) a copy of the mp3 file.

For more information about the Hazelden Springbrook Treatment Center visit their website at: http://www.hazelden.org/springbrook or telephone them at: 1-866-866-4662.
If you would like to do more research on the issues of PTSD you might visit these sites:

The VA’s National Center for PTSD
http://www.ptsd.va.gov/

“What is PTSD” page with downloadable PDF info sheet.
http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/pages/what-is-ptsd.asp

Here’s a good site that discusses “How is PTSD measured?”
http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/pages/ptsd-measured.asp

You can also Search the PILOTs database. PILOTS (Published International Literature on Traumatic Stress) is the largest database of publications on PTSD.
http://www.csa.com/htbin/dbrng.cgi?username=ncptsd&access=ncptsd55&db=pilots-set-c

We will have more from the Springbrook Summit in upcoming articles and interviews.

CopsAlive.com was founded to provide information and strategies to help police officers successfully survive their careers.  We help law enforcement officers and their agencies prepare for the risks that threaten their existence.

We do this by Helping Law Enforcement professionals plan for happy, healthy and successful lives on the job and beyond.  We think the best strategy is for each officer to create a tactical plan for their own life and career.

The Law Enforcement Survival Institute (LESI) works with individuals and organizations to help them create and sustain success in their lives and careers as law enforcement professionals.  It is the primary goal of The Law Enforcement Survival Institute to become the preeminent source for training, resources and information about how to create and sustain a happy, healthy and successful life and career while providing superior law enforcement service to your community.