Stigma of mental illness among police officers waning, say experts

Mental health experts and law enforcement officialssay"more and more"police officers are sharing personal stories about how they deal with the daily trauma their jobs entail, but that there's still a lot of work to be done.

Police chiefs, officers and mental health expertsare gathering in Gatineau this week for a conference about treatingand preventingthe anxiety and depressionpolice across the country often face.

"In policing we see a whole range of situations," said Terry Coleman, the former police chief in Moose Jaw, Sask.

"They tend to accumulate over time, particularly for some people, and end up with very serious consequences."

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Over the course of his careerColemansaid hesaw staffdeal with a broad range of issues from the everyday trauma of traffic incidents to the suicide of a fellow officer.

"We can all be affected by it," he said.

Police still harbour 'tough image'

It's been three years since the Mental Health Commission of Canada first teamed up with the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs to hold this conference.

Louise Bradley,president and CEO of the commission, saidthings have changed for the better.

"Initially, when we raised the whole idea of looking at the mental health of police officers a few years back it was met with some skepticism," she said.

"Surprisingly it hasn't been as difficult as we may have thought."

In the first year, Bradley saidher organization planned only one sessionand was "quitesurprised" by the level of interest.

"One on one, I had police officers come to me in between sessions and say 'Thank you. I'm so glad that we're talking about this,'" she said.

Butin a career where people "pride themselves on a tough image," Bradley saidencouraging people to discuss their emotions is stilla challenge.

Supportive workplacethe only solution

Coleman agrees that stigma, while still a majorissue, has been receding in recent years.

"It's still a barrier and we've still got to be concerned about it," he said.

"A supportive organization which sounds rather clichd that's what it requires. All the way from the chief, all the way through the organization, people that are supportive of people that are having trouble dealing with certain situations."

For many officersmental health issues are not spurred by a single traumatic experience, he adds, but by a slow buildupof issues.

"One that is very traumaticfor many people now is dealing with situations of child abuse,"he said."If you're doing that for a year or two, it accumulates."

Some police forces are tackling that problem by screening officers assigned to child pornography unitsto make sure they're well-suited to that kind of high-anxiety postingand limiting the length of time officers hold those positions.

'A sign of strength, not weakness'

Increasingly, Coleman saidpolice forces arerecognizing the issue and addressing it with referral programs and on-site counselling services.

In 2014, the high-profile death of an Ottawa officer to suicide raised calls for aggressive action to address this issue.

Then last year,the Ottawa Police Service announced it would hire two full-time mental health support workers.

Bradley saidwhat's really making a difference is that "more and more" officers are coming forward to share theirstories, "which actually then gives the freedom and permission to others to talk about it."

It's time, she said, to show that seeking help is "a sign of strength, not weakness."

Suppressing these strong emotionsis never a suitable solution,she adds.

"I'm not saying that it could result in disastrous situations, but it is dangerous to their own health and potentially those around them to not deal with the psychological component," she said.

"In the same way that we wouldn't expect a police officer to go to work with a broken leg, we shouldn't expect them to go to work with a broken mind."

The 'Mental Health of Police Personnel' conference wraps up Wednesday.