UK:Police officers talk about their battle against PTSD

Police officers talk about their battle against PTSD

BBC
By Nicola Dowling, Sally Chesworth and Adrian Goldberg5live Investigates

December 3, 2017

Sgt Suzie Randall struggled with her mental health after working in traumatic circumstances

More than half of all police forces in England and Wales have told the BBC the number of officers having to take long-term sick leave because of mental health problems has been increasing over the last six years. 5 live Investigates has spoken to officers struggling to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) brought on by some of the disturbing things they've experienced during the course of their job.

"I remember just before Christmas going to the death of a child," Sussex police sergeant Suzie Randall recalls.

"If you can imagine walking into a house with a massive Christmas tree and the child's siblings sobbing their hearts out, the family sobbing their hearts out. That was the first incident when I think I suddenly became not very well."

Suzie was an experienced officer with many years in the job when her mental health began to suffer.

Unsure of quite what was wrong and determined not to let the public or her colleagues down, the 44-year-old didn't immediately seek help.

"I carried on and over a three-month period I dealt with some horrific incidents. A samurai sword attack, a double murder - just awful, awful things." 

read more here 

Believe 208 For First Responders Fighting PTSD

Believe 208 5K helps first responders fight depression, PTSD

WFSB 3 News
By Sujata Jain
By Joseph Wenzel IV, News Editor
September 24, 2017

EAST HARTFORD, CT (WFSB) -

"We do peer-support training and anything that our officers need to support them and let them know they're appreciated," Trish Buchanan said. "This is also about suicide awareness, officer wellness."

More than 500 people will lace up their running shoes for the annual Believe 208 5K run on Sunday morning.

The fourth annual run supports Believe 208, which is an organization that connects first responders with resources to fight depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Taking the tragedy and turning it into something positive for all our first responders," Trish Buchanan, who is the founder of Believe 208, said. 

The event was established in memory of East Hartford Police Officer Paul Buchanan, who took his own life in 2013. Paul's wife Trish Buchanan said he suffered depression and post-traumatic stress disorder from 24 years on the job.

"He asked us to do this in his memory to help others like him," Trish Buchanan said. 
read more here

North Dakota Police Officer Fights For PTSD Benefits and Justice

“I’m going to tell my story”: Williston officer fights for benefits after traumatic call results in PTSD
Williston Herald
Elizabeth Hackeburg
August 19, 2017

“There is no mechanism in North Dakota Century Code that allows WSI to pay for mental injury such as PTSD or any other health services without a physical injury on the job. The last time the North Dakota legislature looked at this issue was during the 2015 session, and the bill was defeated.”

Williston police officer Bill Holler was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in June after effectively witnessing a gruesome suicide. He is on unpaid leave and fighting for financial assistance from North Dakota Workforce Safety and Insurance, despite his claim's denial based on state law. Elizabeth Hackenburg • Williston Herald

A Williston police officer who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder several months ago after responding to a horrifying call is fighting for financial assistance from a state agency that helps workers who are injured on the job.

Officer Bill Holler says he is paying for medical treatment, including psychiatric visits and medication, with his own money, and has appealed to North Dakota Workforce Safety and Insurance three times to help cover the costs after his claim was denied. 

The agency told Holler that under the state’s Century Code, physical injuries, as well as mental harm that is accompanied by a physical injury, are eligible for compensation, but “a mental injury arising from mental stimulus” is not covered. 
read more here

Police Officer Fights to Heal PTSD--And Justice After Being Fired

Fired cop sues N. Platte, says city didn't accommodate his PTSD after fatal shooting

Lincoln Journal Star

Lori Pilger

August 20, 2017

Pelster said after Harms lost his job he went to the Nebraska Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which found reasonable cause to believe the city had discriminated against Harms on the basis of disability.

A former North Platte police officer has sued the city, alleging he was wrongfully terminated after he sought disability benefits for PTSD, which he developed after taking the life of an armed man.

Rick Harms is asking a federal judge to reinstate his job and award him back pay and benefits, according to the lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Omaha.

The city has not yet responded to the suit.

According to the lawsuit, Harms had worked as a patrolman with the North Platte Police Department for nearly 10 years when, early March 25, 2011, he shot and killed Marlon Johnson, a 60-year-old man who had pulled two knives on officers in the station's lobby.

A grand jury later cleared Harms and another officer involved of any wrongdoing.

But Harms developed post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of having to take the life of the armed assailant in the course of his duties as a police officer, his attorney, Glenn Pelster, said in the complaint.

read more here

 Man shot and killed at police station

Australia: Police Commission Says Cops Need Better Support for PTSD

Outgoing WA Police Commissioner says mentally injured cops need better support

ABC News Australia
By David Weber
August 11, 2017

"I think the second thing is being able to maintain contact with those people, and I think that part of the solution here will be the advent of workers compensation and redress for the people who haven't received it."

The WA Police Commissioner has admitted the service has not been good at identifying officers' mental health issues, and said he regrets not getting a workers compensation scheme up and running for victims in the state before leaving his post.

The union has long fought for a compensation scheme to cover medically-retired officers, who are currently dealt with under loss of confidence provisions.

Karl O'Callaghan said it had taken too long to publicly acknowledge the impact of mental health problems.

"We have not been good at acknowledging the role that mental health plays in an officer's ability to continue work," he said.

"One of the pieces of feedback we got from a lot of officers is they felt that once they weren't able to continue, that they were not part of the family.

"They were not kept in contact [with] and people didn't actually care about them.

"We could've done more to help those police officers feel like they still belonged and manage their movement out of the organisation into civilian life."

Commissioner O'Callaghan said a compensation scheme would also go some way towards assisting people forced to retire because their mental health was injured on the job.
read more here

UK Firefighters Help Comes In Tiny Stunt After Grenfell Towers

All of us remember hearing the news about Grenfell Towers burning. Few of us know what happened after the fire was put out.

Scotland Yard named 18 of the dead and withheld the identities of 22 more at the requests of their families. Besides those named by police, 15 people were identified when their inquests were opened and adjourned at Westminster coroner’s court . Officers believe that 255 people survived the fire.

And that is the problem. We never seem to be able to pay attention after the fire stops burning. Just as we never seem able to pay attention after wars start, police standoffs end and guns go quiet. 

We avoid asking any questions about the response our first responders get, because after all, it is their jobs to face everything they encounter and deal with it. Right? Isn't that what we expect?

Well, I'm here to tell you that they should be able to expect a lot out of us in return. This story is about firefighters in the UK, but they are just as human as firefighters all over the world and equally ignored. Its just so easy to forget they run into what all of us run away from for a reason.

Anyway, when they suffer for saving our lives, who the hell is fighting to save theirs?

Read this story but while you are, notice that the response to these first responders suffering is other members after a 1 day training course. Yep~

Police and firefighters seek help from mental health charity after Grenfell fire and terror incidents 
Evening Standard UK 
CHLOE CHAPLAIN 
3 hours ago 

But one officer said TriM was rushed in and was being delivered by "current police officers who have done a one-day training course."

A post-traumatic stress charity has issued a stark warning about poor mental health support for frontline staff and revealed members of the emergency services reached out for help in the wake of recent major incidents.

 (note: yes that is playground equipment)

Around 30 police officers and firefighters have been in contact with PTSD999 seeking support with the condition following the Grenfell Tower fire and recent terror attacks. Dany Cotton, commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, said the welfare of staff was paramount after the Grenfell disaster, while the Metropolitan Police said it had specialist programmes in place after recent high profile events.

Steve White, chairman of the Police Federation, and Sean Starbuck, lead officer for mental health with the Fire Brigades Union, said care was improving but raised concerns over cuts to resources.

read more here

I've been doing this for almost 35 years and I'm still learning facts as much as I've read pure BS. I did two years of training to become a Chaplain and do Crisis Intervention as well as grief and loss, just to be able to work with the responders. Reading about a 1 day training in response to this, is a pathetic tiny stunt so they can say, "well we did something about it" instead of we did everything possible for them.

Pulse Responding Officer Wins PTSD Disability Claim

UPDATE

Judge Hears Lost Wage Claims For Pulse Officer With PTSD

Jessica Realin, Gerry’s wife, said the city fought the case hard.
“You’re sitting there watching them pick apart a person, and this person served this community for 13 years proudly,” Realin said. ” For them to tear him apart as if his service didn’t matter, it’s disgraceful.”

Orlando pension board grants officer with PTSD early retirement, pension
Gerry Realin assigned to remove dead from Pulse nightclub
ClickOrlando.com
By Emilee Speck - Digital journalist
July 13, 2017

"This has been a very difficult time for my family. Listening to the evidence today was very hard." Jessica Realin

ORLANDO, Fla. - The Orlando Police Department Pension Board granted the early retirement and pension for an officer diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after he was assigned to carry bodies out of the Pulse nightclub.

Officer Gerry Realin, 37, asked the board approve his early retirement on permanent disability. The veteran officer was not present for the board’s decision. His wife, Jessica Realin, said doctors told her it would be too stressful for him.

Gerry Realin was one of seven assigned on June 12 to remove some of the 49 dead from the Pulse building. He was diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder following his assignment to the nightclub and, according to his treating physicians, has been unable to return to work in any capacity.

The board found that Realin's PTSD was a permanent and total disability directly attributed to his response to the mass shooting.

After the decision, Jessica Realin was very emotional and thanked the board for their time and for hearing their case.
read more here

Australian Police Get Back Up For Life

Back Up for Life program fills gaping hole of support for ex-police officers
Canterbury-Bankstown Express
Danielle Buckley
July 10, 2017

“There’s a loss of identity, loss of purpose, value and their whole lifestyle,” Insp Bousfield said. “My hope for the program is that when police officers leave the policing profession there’ll always be an organisation that recognises their profession and maintains connectivity with police force.”

Chairman of NSW Police Legacy Inspector Paul Bousfield and Back Up for Life mentor Heath Thompson at Neptune Park, Revesby. Picture: Carmela Roche

When Heath Thompson left the NSW Police Force after 23 years, he thought “What am I going to do now?”

“It’s like being in jail,” Mr Thompson said.

“You’re institutionalised to think you can’t do anything apart from being a police officer.”

Like a lot of ex-police officers, Mr Thompson struggled with the transition from cop to civilian, suffering post traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues when he left Campsie LAC in 2011.

But back then, there was no support.

Fast forward six years and a new NSW Police Legacy initiative, Back Up For Life, is providing post-service support for former NSW police officers and their families.
read more here

Australia: Police Officers Struggle for Help With PTSD

Late policeman’s brother vows to help those struggling
Border Mail Australia
BLAIR THOMSON
1 Jul 2017

THE BROTHER of an Albury policeman who took his own life after a battle with post traumatic stress disorder is helping others in the force who are struggling.

MESSAGE: Patrick Seccull says those battling PTSD should know that there is help out there, and that life can be good despite how bad things can get fighting the illness.

Tony Seccull, 41, followed in the footsteps of his older brother Patrick when he joined NSW Police as a young man.

The father of one lost his battle at his Burrumbuttock property on February 1, leaving a gap in his large family that will always be there.

Patrick, who has also worked as an Albury policeman and has had his own fight with the disorder, said his brother died about five years to the day after his discharge from the force.

By the end of his service, Tony was worn out and just wanted to retire without the grinding stress caused by the police insurance company.

Mr Seccull links his brother’s PTSD to an incident early in his career, the full impact of which didn’t surface until a firearms training course on the Border sometime around 2010.

Tony had been stationed at Nyngan in central NSW in the early 2000s and like many times before, he was called to a domestic dispute.

But it was no ordinary call out, with a farmer firing shots from a high-powered rifle at Tony and his partner, leaving them pinned down.
read more here

Veteran Marine-Ex-Police Officer Going Through Veterans Court

Former officer, ex-Marine pleads guilty to domestic violence 
by Associated Press 
June 21st 2017

XXXXXXX pleaded guilty June 12 to aggravated assault, a second-degree felony, as he was admitted into Veteran's Court in Provo.

PROVO, Utah (AP) — A former police officer and ex-Marine has pleaded guilty to domestic violence charges and was admitted to a specialty treatment program for veterans. 

Deseret News reports the prosecutor says the resolution will prevent 30-year-old former West Jordan Police officer XXXXXXXX from ever again wearing a uniform and will ensure he gets help for his post-traumatic stress disorder. read more here

PTSD Australia: Police Officer Talks About Moment Everything Changed

'I just wanted to wrap my arms around her': Police officer reveals the moment she climbed into the boot of a car with a dying mother who had been trapped for four days
Daily Mail Australia
By Sam McPhee
18 June 2017

Narelle Fraser had a breakdown following the discovery of Maria Korp and developed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result. She has quit the police force and is speaking out on PTSD in an attempt to encourage others to address the illness.

Narelle Fraser (pictured) was the first police officer on the scene and could not find Maria Korp's pulse

Policewoman has opened up about finding a near-dead woman in 2005
Narelle Fraser discovered mother-of-two Maria Korp in the boot of a car
Fraser cradled Korp who she thought was deceased after being in car four days
She felt Korp breathe and immediately rushed her to hospital
Korp was placed in coma but passed away several months later

A Victorian policewoman has relived the moment she discovered what she thought was the lifeless body of a missing woman in the boot of a car.

Narelle Fraser found mother-of-two Maria Korp in the back of a Mazda 626 in Melbourne on the 13th of February, 2005.

An emotional Fraser climbed in the boot to cradle the body, only to feel Korp breathe before rushing her to hospital.

Maria Korp was placed in a medically induced coma but would never regain consciousness and died several months later.

Police allege her husband, Joe Korp, and mistress, Tania Herman, plotted killing Maria. Joe committed suicide on the day of his wife's funeral, while Tania pleaded guilty to her murder.
read more here

On the Other Side of Broken: One Cop's Battle with the Demons of PTSD

Police officer talks about dealing with PTSD
Brantford Expositor
Friday, June 16, 2017

Gain a new understanding of those who live with either PTSD or deafblindness at upcoming Brantford Public Library programs.

Police officer Brian Knowler will visit the Brantford Public Library on 

June 21 to talk about how PTSD affected his health, career and marriage.

(Postmedia Network)

On June 21, at 6:30 p.m, author and police officer Brian Knowler will visit the main branch to talk about how post-traumatic stress disorder affected his health, career and marriage.

In 2004, Brian Knowler was the first police officer at the scene of a fatal collision involving a close friend. For years he hid the physical and psychological effects, while his personal and professional life started to fall apart. He eventually sought help and was diagnosed with PTSD.

His book, On the Other Side of Broken: One Cop's Battle with the Demons of PTSD, tells the story about his life since being diagnosed and his recovery. It also talks about his wife's experiences; standing by him to help them rebuild their lives even though she watched her husband turn into someone she didn't recognize. Come to this free event to hear first-hand about Knowler's experiences.
read more here

PULSE NIGHTCLUB RESPONDER CONFRONTS A NEW CRISIS: PTSD

A PULSE NIGHTCLUB RESPONDER CONFRONTS A NEW CRISIS: PTSD
WMFE
by Abe Aboraya (NPR)
7 hours ago

Gerry Realin says he wishes he had never become a police officer.

Self portrait of Gerry Realin. Time on the paddleboard is one way Realin deals with his post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis. Gerry Realin (left) and his wife Jessica are working to get first responders workers' compensation benefits in Florida. Image credit: Abe Aboraya

Realin, 37, was part of the hazmat team that responded to the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando on June 12, 2016. He spent four hours taking care of the dead inside the club. Now, triggers like a Sharpie marker or a white sheet yank him out of the moment and back to the nightclub, where they used Sharpies to list the victims that night and white sheets to cover them.

He says small things make him disproportionately upset. He gets lost in memories of the shooting, he says — his young son will call him over and over again. Then, he gets angry that he let himself get trapped in thought, and that spirals into depression.

“Then there’s the moments you can’t control,” Realin says. “The images or flashbacks or nightmares you don’t even know about, and your wife tells you the next day you were screaming or twitching all night.”

Realin was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and hasn’t worked since just after the shooting. He worries about his family, he says, “hiding from your kids so that they’re not traumatized by your rage or depression,” which “gives them a sense of insecurity, which isn’t good.”

At least one other police officer has publicly discussed being diagnosed with PTSD after the Pulse shooting, and it’s possible there are more who suffer from it. Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan says there are people who go to war and don’t see what officers saw inside Pulse.
read more here

Pulse Responders Needing Help But Still Not Finding It

A Pulse Nightclub Responder Confronts A New Crisis: PTSD
NPR
Abe Aborya
June 12, 2017

Sheehan has heard from first responders and mental health workers that there are more officers, possibly with PTSD, who don't want to come forward because they don't want to be seen as weak or unfit for duty. She says she wishes they would, though.

Gerry Realin says he wishes he had never become a police officer.

Realin, 37, was part of the hazmat team that responded to the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando on June 12, 2016. He spent four hours taking care of the dead inside the club. Now, triggers like a Sharpie marker or a white sheet yank him out of the moment and back to the nightclub, where they used Sharpies to list the victims that night and white sheets to cover them.

He says small things make him disproportionately upset. He gets lost in memories of the shooting, he says — his young son will call him over and over again. Then, he gets angry that he let himself get trapped in thought, and that spirals into depression.

"Then there's the moments you can't control," Realin says. "The images or flashbacks or nightmares you don't even know about, and your wife tells you the next day you were screaming or twitching all night."

Realin was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and hasn't worked since just after the shooting. He worries about his family, he says, "hiding from your kids so that they're not traumatized by your rage or depression," which "gives them a sense of insecurity, which isn't good."

"I've talked to some of the officers and they're pretty traumatized by what they saw," Sheehan says. "It was horrible, the sights and the smells, and the thing that really haunts them is the cell phones that were in [the victims'] pockets ringing."
read more here

Responders Haunted By Pulse One Year Later

Basic Instinct to Save Lives Haunts Them After Pulse
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
June 11, 2017


Most humans are programmed to run from danger. The need to stay alive is a basic instinct. Some humans are programmed to run toward the danger. The need to help others stay alive is just as much an instinct within them.

A year ago it happened during a time when on man decided to kill as many others as possible at the Pulse Nightclub.

USA Today has a section devoted to the survivors and responders from DearWorld, like Eatonville Police Officer Omar Delgado.

Most of the people at that nightclub were running for their lives and trying to find their friends. All of the people rushing to the unknown horror awaiting them, were on a mission to save as many strangers as possible.

What makes people like Officer Delgado do such a thing? Not just during one horrifying event, but to choose to do it as a job?

We have far too many placing such a value on others lives, to the point where they were prepared to die for them, turning into someone who can no longer value their own lives.

“Each memory stings sharper than a slap, how can there be a healing of the heart?” Peter Meinke

As we approach one year since the Pulse nightclub shooting … 90.7 reached out to Florida’s Poet Laureate, Peter Meinke to see if he’d write a poem to mark the occasion. And he did.

Pulse six months It is an anniversary no one wanted to have.

Definition of anniversary
1: the annual recurrence of a date marking a notable event a wedding anniversary; broadly : a date that follows such an event by a specified period of time measured in units other than years the 6-month anniversary of the accident
2: the celebration of an anniversary

A remembrance is not always something someone wants to have either.

Definition of remembrance
1: the state of bearing in mind
2 a : the ability to remember : memory b : the period over which one's memory extends
3: an act of recalling to mind
4: a memory of a person, thing, or event
5a : something that serves to keep in or bring to mind : reminder b : commemoration, memorial c : a greeting or gift recalling or expressing friendship or affection

Let all that sink in for a moment. Ready to sacrifice their own lives for total strangers ending up not being able to find something worth living for? What happened?

That question is asked all the time when we have men and women coming home from combat doing a job that they knew could cost them their lives. It is asked of current military members when they continue to do it knowing the price they too many have to pay.

We hardly ever ask that when police officers, firefighters and other first responders suffer for doing those jobs.

Why? Aren't they just as human as the rest of the people the majority of the humans depend on for their own lives?

We were stunned when regular people put their lives on the line to save their friends. Even more so when they stopped to help strangers they could have simply ran by but did everything possible to help them get to safety. We were not so stunned by the police officers and firefighters doing their jobs.

Have we become so hardened that we think "Oh well. They get paid to do it" instead of being able to simply be in awe of what they decided to do with their own lives? After all, they could have chosen any other profession that would not be do dangerous.

The most difficult thing for me to understand, or accept, is the simple fact that they valued life so much, they were willing to die, but did not value their own enough to find what they needed to recover from those jobs.

How is this possible? This is PTSD Awareness Month which began seven years ago and the 27th is PTSD Awareness Day. Yet for the people who put their lives on the line, are still unaware of what PTSD is, why they have it, or what they can do to heal. Most do not even know they can heal!

How about tomorrow we send our responders that message? Let them know we will help them heal and how much they do mean to us! They do not have to suffer alone. 

This is a day that will haunt them for the rest of their lives and they need help to kick the crap out of the ghosts and stop the sound of the cell phones from ringing in their dreams!

First Responders to Pulse Searching For Healing

Pulse survivors share memories, messages
USA TODAY , KHOU
Rick Jervis
June 09, 2017

“I don’t care how rich or important you are, when you have a problem, you’re going to dial those three little numbers. But when we need the help, who do we call?” Omar Delgado

More than anything else, Omar Delgado remembers the phones. Dozens of them, he said, ringing incessantly and spinning in pools of their owners’ blood, the only sound in an otherwise quiet nightclub.

Delgado, 45, an Eatonville Police officer, was one of the first responders to the June 12, 2016, Pulse nightclub shooting. As he entered the club through a patio door that night, he saw bleeding and bullet-torn bodies strewn across the dance floor, many of them slumped on top of one another, their phones ringing next to them.

“I knew it was a loved one trying to reach that person and they were never ever going to pick up that phone again,” Delgado said in an interview with USA TODAY. “It was horrific.”

A year ago Monday, gunman Omar Mateen opened fire inside Pulse, a popular LGBT club in Orlando, with a semi-automatic rifle and a 9mm Glock pistol, killing 49 patrons and injuring 53 others in one of the deadliest shooting sprees in U.S. history. Mateen was shot and killed by police after a three-hour standoff.
read more here

PTSD Presumption For Canadian First Responders?

Attitudes evolving toward PTSD, police chief says
Sudbury.com
Darren MacDonald
April 21, 2017

“The team provides immediate peer support and access to resources for members who have been involved in potentially traumatic events,” the report said. “The goal is to monitor members post event and off support services where identified.”

Attitudes toward post-traumatic stress disorder and policing have changed considerably since he began his career, Greater Sudbury Police Chief Paul Pedersen said this week. (File photo).

Attitudes toward post-traumatic stress disorder and policing have changed considerably since he began his career, Greater Sudbury Police Chief Paul Pedersen said this week.

"I've been in the profession a very long time,” Pedersen said. “There was a time when these types of things were not only unrecognized, but were hidden. There was a stigma associated with mental illness that suggested there was a weakness of character."

The chief was speaking after a police services board meeting this week, in which the force outlined its policies for helping front-line workers with PTSD.

Police had until April 23 to do so under the Supporting Ontario's First Responders Act, passed in the Ontario Legislature this month. It creates a presumption that PTSD diagnosed in first responders is work-related.
read more here

PTSD on Trial: Former Police Officer, Veteran Marine

Former Norfolk officer testifies he had PTSD when he shot the man who's suing him

• By Jonathan Edwards 
  The Virginian-Pilot
• 2 hrs ago

The ex-officer being sued by the man he shot more than four years ago testified Friday that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder at the time and struggles to deal with stressful situations in which he doesn’t have control.

Robertson, a Marine who served in the Middle East, was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder for symptoms that had been happening before that day. Because of his PTSD, he struggled when he wasn’t able to move freely. 

Robertson, who worked as a Norfolk officer for six years, quit the force in December 2015. His lawyer, Alan Rashkind, said his client had to retire because of how badly he was hurt when Mitchell dragged him, which required two shoulder surgeries and fusion of two vertebrae in his neck. read more here

Who They Are Not Changed By How They Are

Early this morning I was reading "Another View: We can’t ignore veterans and PTSD" and this part pretty much sums up how useless all of these stunts are.

Tom Voss and Anthony Anderson, two Iraq War veterans suffering from depression and suicidal ideation following deployments in Iraq, decided to take a 2,700-mile walk across America as a way to confront their inner pain, according to the flyer for their award-winning film “Almost Sunrise” (almostsunrise@filmsprout.org). Last week, along with other veterans, I viewed the film at North Shore Community College in Danvers, Mass., where I had served as president for 13 years helping build a program that serves upwards of 400 veteran students today. The film records, after they conclude their hike, their subsequent treatment involving silence and meditation, resulting in their self-discovery of the cause of their pain, severe guilt over actions they had taken that affronted their morale self-expectations. In Tom’s case, it was leaving a civilian Iraqi wounded and dying on the side of the road. For me, it was leaving behind an orphanage full of Vietnamese Americans, products of unions between Vietnamese and American soldiers when my unit was removed from the Mekong Delta in 1969. I can relate.

All this awareness raising has not made anyone aware of the reasons they have to live. Most still do not have a clue that PTSD has changed how they are but has not changed who they are.

How they are makes them think the way they used to be is gone forever. Under that pain, it is all still there. They just have to use the same dedication to do their jobs as they do to the job of healing and helping others heal as well. After all, isn't that what their jobs were all about in the first place? Saving lives? What better place to start than with their own so they can turn around and lead others to heal by example?

They do not know the difference between PTSD caused by profession and the type civilians get.

AbstractFirst responders, including military health care workers, public health service workers, and state, local, and volunteer first responders serve an important role in protecting our nation’s citizenry in the aftermath of disaster. Protecting our nation’s health is a vital part of preserving national security and the continuity of critical national functions. However, public health and public safety workers experience a broad range of health and mental health consequences as a result of work-related exposures to natural or man-made disasters. This chapter reviews recent epidemiologic studies that broaden our understanding of the range of health and mental health consequences for first responders. Evidence-based psychopharmacologic and psychotherapeutic interventions for posttraumatic distress reactions and psychiatric disorders are outlined. 

Civilians can get hit by PTSD from one event. Now think of how many events all of the above experience throughout their career. Now think about the other fact that far too many of them forget the basic reason they wanted to do those jobs knowing that it could cost them their lives.

What makes their PTSD different and deeper than what civilians get is they willing risk it it all for the sake of other people. They have a deeper level of emotional ability to allow them to do that and that is also why they get hit harder than others. Plus, it is the biggest reason they are so unwilling to ask for help from anyone.

These men and women are the ones others depend on. Or that is the way they see themselves. The original basis actually demands they ask for help considering they have no problem depending on those they serve with to help keep them alive doing those jobs topped off being willing to pay any price in order to return the favor.

So why haven't they gotten that message? Why haven't they gotten any of the messages they really need to hear loud and clear?

We're too busy reading about raising awareness stunts while no one can actually explain who they are trying to make aware of the fact veterans, Police Officers, Firefighters and EMTs are killing themselves. Yep, guess along with leaving out the current Military Suicides on all the awareness, they forgot about all the other jobs.

Australia: Police Officer Finds Healing PTSD Better Than Dying

Post-traumatic stress disorder: NSW police sufferers estimated to number 1600
The Sunday Telegraph
BEN PIKE
April 8, 2017

IN a career as one of our top cops, Luke Moore had seen it all — and finally he couldn’t bear to see any more.

Suffering the debilitating effects of post-traumatic stress disorder, Det Supt Moore jumped from the 13th floor of a hotel, expecting to die.

But things didn’t go according to plan. After plunging 40m, Mr Moore crashed through the lid of a skip filled with linen, cushioning his fall and saving his life.

While he shattered his pelvis, hip, and elbow and broke his leg, arm and back, he suffered no permanent brain or organ damage and is once again able to walk.

Mr Moore, 49, who remained conscious throughout the ordeal, said: “When I was laying there it was instant relief in terms of I knew that I was not going back to work.

“I knew instantly that I did not want to die. I am not a spiritual person at all but I’m very conscious of how lucky I am and what an opportunity it is to go on and live life.

“It puts in perspective how good it is to be alive.”

Now he is hoping his story will encourage others officers suffering PTSD — a crippling psychological condition that currently affects an estimated 1600 officers in NSW — to seek help.
read more here