The CopsAlive Total Wellness Project is a community effort to ensure the wellness of police officers around the world by gathering tips, suggestions, stories, strategies and resources from law enforcement officers to help other cops survive this career.
We are planning on creating a special report on how to create total wellness for police officers and protect ourselves from all the threats that affect us in or following a law enforcement career.
CopsAlive.com was created to help law enforcement officers successfully navigate their careers and build happy, healthy lives. We believe that law enforcement is the most noble of professions and acknowledge that many people working in law enforcement make sacrifices everyday to make our communities safer and happier. We believe that those professionals in law enforcement also deserve to be happy, healthy and successful and we intend to help them plan for that by collecting and disseminating information that will help them have better careers and better lives. We accomplish this by establishing a running commentary on the Internet through the use of a web log or Blog. We create interactive discussions and stimulate action around the hidden dangers facing the police. We use survey instruments online, and in person, to discover the beliefs of our industry and we tailor information strategies and tools for them from this information. If you believe in this mission and have something to contribute we would welcome it.
We are looking for stories, examples and strategies that will re-enforce a sense of total wellness and protect us from all the threats that confront a policing professional in or following a career in law enforcement.
The final product a “Special Report” will be distributed free to police officers and other law enforcement professionals around the world.
Everyone who contributes to the report will automatically receive… a pre-release copy and will have the rights to distribute it to all of their contacts within the guidelines prescribed by this document.
Articles and tips may be submitted in one of two ways. You may type them into the comment box entitled “Leave a Reply” at the end of this article (please use the format we described below) or you may send your article or tip in a Word or PDF document, using the format listed below, in an email to CopsAlive by CLICKING HERE.
CLICK HERE for a submission form in MS Word format.
CLICK HERE for a submission form in PDF format.
Here are a few guidelines for submissions:
Generally, entries for this “Special Report: should be concisely written and contain around one page or approximately 500 words of content. Longer material may be considered for it’s overall contribution to police wellness and utilized in a separate part of the final report or as a separate PDF download from the CopsAlive.com website.
For the purpose of copyright all material submitted becomes the sole property of The Law Enforcement Survival Institute (LESI). Then anyone contributing to the report or anyone promoting the mission stated for this report may distribute it for free, unchanged and in it’s entirety to their department, agency, association, organization, or members, etc.
The author must submit a biography along with any contact or resource information they choose. It is highly recommended that they provide web links to appropriate web resources or their website or agency web page.
Most of the material on CopsAlive.com is written or tailored specifically for law enforcement professionals and is distributed within one or more of the following categories. We would like to have submissions conform to one of these categories and may be included in more than one.
Plan Your Life
Plan Your Fun
Plan Your Health
Plan Your Relationships
Plan Your Career
Plan Your Finances
Plan Your Retirement
Plan Your Growth
Plan Your Legacy
Have a Back-Up Plan
Start a Business
Please use this format for you submission:
Title:
Topic Area from list:
Author:
Author’s Agency or Organization:
Author’s Email Address:
Author’s Website:
Article (Please be concise, no more than one page or approx. 500 words)
Recommended Resources:
Resource Websites:
Author’s Biography: (No more than 150 words)
It is expected that the creation of this report may take up to one year and may not be completed until late 2013. This is dependent upping the numbers and quality of submissions. If we receive too many submissions to publish we may create a second or other successive edition. The editor of CopsAlive.com reserves the right to deny on submission without reason.
Even if you don’t want to contribute to this report you can help us by publicizing what we are doing. Attached below is a PDF flyer that can be printed out and distributed to the members of your agency or posted on a bulletin board or emailed to your friends. Thank you for your help!
Download the information flyer here by clicking the PDF icon.
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.
Hi Steve,
Thank you for your comment. I’m very sorry to hear what happened to you and thank you for sharing your experiences. I know that there a lots of other cops out there who are going through what you have.
I agree with you that agencies need to put into place mechanisms to help and support their cops.
I also think that we need to change our whole culture and if we say that we are “going to take care of our own” that we mean it. Check out our article about True Blue Valor at: https://www.copsalive.com/true-blue-valor. Those who agree with this philosophy might consider hosting a program at your department.
I was medically retired from a small dept. (80 sworn) in AZ, after my second shooting incident. I was diagnosed with PTSD. The doctors that I saw, all stated that this was a cumalative effect based on all the critical incidents throughout my career, in which there was little to no psychological support. The trigger for the disorder was the shooting. My recommendation for all departments would be to provide an on-going support process/evaluation process, for perhaps a year after the incident. The symptoms do not always appear right after the incident, and a check a month, 2 months 6 months down the road, would be able to identify potential or current issues to be addressed before the need to force someone into retirement.