New Information on Police Suicide

breakingthesilencecoverNew IACP Program on Police Officer Suicide

The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) has just released a new resource for law enforcement on police officer suicide, with information and resources on prevention and response to the problem of law enforcement officer suicide. The resources on their website are from their symposium entitled: “Breaking the Silence: A National Symposium on Law Enforcement Officer Suicide and Mental Health” and their website is loaded with lots of downloadable and reproducible materials.

According to the IACP website: “To address the mental health stigma within law enforcement as well as the critical issue of law enforcement suicide, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, in partnership with the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice (COPS) hosted Breaking the Silence: A National Symposium on Law Enforcement Officer Suicide and Mental Health in July 2013. The participants at the symposium, which included the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, law enforcement and mental health professionals, worked together to develop a national strategy to address officer mental health wellness and suicide prevention”.

You can find their information… here: http://www.theiacp.org/Preventing-law-Enforcement-officer-suicide

The IACP site is also loaded with lots of links to free downloads and links to other agencies that support their work in suicide prevention.

IACP suggests that “The information contained within is intended for use by professional law enforcement agencies. These materials were submitted by agencies throughout the country and reflect material designed specifically for their law enforcement population. The specific applicability to other agencies depends upon a multitude of factors”.

Check out these RESOURCES on the IACP site:

DOWNLOADS:

Breaking the Silence: A National Symposium on Law Enforcement Officer Suicide and Mental Health
Developing a Suicide Prevention Program
Sample Suicide Prevention Materials​
Sample Training Materials​
Sample Presentations
Sample Funeral Protocols

Their page also includes these HELPFUL LINKS:

American Association of Suicidology at: http://www.suicidology.org/home
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention at: https://www.afsp.org/
Badge of Life at: http://www.badgeoflife.com/
Brain Line Military at: http://www.brainlinemilitary.org/
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at: http://www.cdc.gov/violencePrevention/suicide/
Living Works at: https://www.livingworks.net/
National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention at: http://actionallianceforsuicideprevention.org/
National Institute of Mental Health at: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/suicide-prevention/index.shtml
National Police Suicide Foundation at: http://www.psf.org/
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at: http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
SAVE: Suicide Awareness Voices of Education at: http://www.save.org/
Serve & Protect at: http://serveprotect.org/
Suicide.org: Suicide Prevention, Awareness and Support at: http://www.suicide.org/suicide-hotlines.html
Suicide Prevention at: http://www.larasig.com/suicide
Suicidology Online: Open Access Journal at: http://www.suicidology-online.com/
Tears of a Cop at: http://www.tearsofacop.com/police/police.html
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: National Center for PTSD at: http://www.ptsd.va.gov/

Their page also links to the IACP’s Center for Officer Safety and Wellness where you will find many more useful resources:
http://www.theiacp.org/CenterforOfficerSafetyandWellness

There you will find links to resources like a report on “The Impact of Shift Length in Policing on Performance Health Quality of Life Sleep Fatigue and ExtraDuty Employment”

Remember June is PTSD Awareness Month and the week of September 8-14th is National Suicide Prevention Week in the United States. These would be great times for you to initiate campaigns within your agency or organization to promote information and prevention strategies to help reduce the problem of police officer suicides.

Remember, CopsAlive is written to prompt discussions within our profession about the issues of law enforcement career survival. We invite you to share your opinions, ask questions and suggest topics for us in the Comment Box that is at the bottom of this article.

At The Law Enforcement Survival Institute (LESI) we train law enforcement officers to cope with stress and manage all the toxic effects and hidden dangers of a career in law enforcement.

Our “Armor Your Self™: How to Survive a Career in Law Enforcement” on-site training program is an eight hour, hands-on, “How to” seminar that helps police officers and other law enforcement professionals armor themselves physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually to survive their careers in police work. To learn more CLICK HERE

The concept of “True Blue Valor™” is where one law enforcement officer has to muster the courage to confront a peer who is slipping both professionally and personally and endangering themselves, their peers and the public. It takes a system of organizational support and professional leadership to support and foster the concept of courage and intervention. We will train your trainers to deliver this program to your agency.
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Our “Armor Your Agency™: How to Create a Healthy and Supportive Law Enforcement Agency” Program includes critical strategies that you will need to build a system of support and encouragement for a healthy and productive agency. To learn more CLICK HERE

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I’m John Marx, Founder of The Law Enforcement Survival Institute and the Editor of CopsAlive.com. Connect with me on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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. Thank you for reading!

About Editor

John Marx was a Police Officer for twenty-three years and served as a Hostage Negotiator for nineteen of those years. He worked as a patrol officer, media liaison officer, crime prevention officer and burglary detective. Also during his career he served as administrator of his city's Community Oriented Governance initiative through the police department's Community Policing project. Today John combines his skills to consult with businesses about improving both their security and their customer service programs. John retired from law enforcement in 2002. When one of his friends, also a former police officer, committed suicide at age 38, John was devastated and began researching the problems that stress creates for police officers. He decided he needed to do something to help change those problems and he wanted to give something back to the profession that gave him so much. He started a project that has evolved into CopsAlive.com. Put simply, the mission of CopsAlive is to save the lives of those who save lives! CopsAlive.com gathers information, strategies and tools to help law enforcement professionals plan for happy, healthy and successful careers, relationships and lives.
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