First Responders fighting PTSD, you can walk in their shoes...sneakers

Iowa officer's shoe campaign helping first responders struggling with PTSD goes national

If you or your loved one is suffering from PTSD, you can contact the Code 9 Project here. Officer Slagle's shoes are back up for sale and can be found here.

FOX 28 News
by Kayla James
July 3rd 2019

It was just this spring Marion officer Ron Slagle announced the pre-ordering of his footwear, the Honor and Respect Shoes. 

The sneakers, sporting a patriotic design, are an effort of Slagle's to raise money for the Code 9 Project and Blue H.E.L.P. Both are organizations focusing on providing help and resources to first responders and their families battling post traumatic stress disorder.

On Wednesday morning, Officer Slagle appeared on "Fox and Friends" to discuss his shoes and his mission. Code 9 Project co-founder, Deborah Ortize, tells CBS2/Fox28 News the shoes quickly sold out after his appearance. In addition to them selling out for a brief period of time, Ortize says she's been receiving many calls and e-mails to the Code 9 Project's headquarters.
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NYPD 4 Officer Suicides in 3 Weeks

4 Officer Suicides in 3 Weeks: N.Y.P.D. Struggles to Dispel Mental Health Stigma

The New York Times
By Ashley Southall
June 27, 2019

First, there was the deputy chief facing mandatory retirement as his 63rd birthday approached. The next day, it was a veteran homicide detective who had talked dozens of people out of killing themselves.

Officers embraced on a street behind the 121st Precinct station house on Staten Island, where Officer Michael Caddy, 29, ended his own life on June 14.CreditCreditBryan Anselm for The New York Times

A week later, it was a young patrolman handling domestic violence cases and going through a divorce. Then on Wednesday, a veteran officer was found dead at his home on Long Island.

All four officers took their own lives this month with their service pistols, highlighting an uncomfortable reality: More police officers commit suicide every year in New York City than are killed in the line of duty, and the department’s efforts to persuade despondent officers to seek counseling have had only limited success.

Since 2014, an average of five New York City police officers have taken their own lives each year, according to the Police Department. Six have died by suicide in the last six months alone.

The recent cluster of deaths prompted Commissioner James P. O’Neill to declare a mental-health crisis and to direct officers to seek help.
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#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife

It is the reason I became a Chaplain back in 2008

The deepest dashboard

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
June 23, 2019

Why do responders suffer a deeper level of PTSD? Is it because they are exposed over and over again to traumatic events? Or is it because they have the "one time too many" hit them?

After decades of research, it became clear that for responders, it is more about the strength of their emotional core that makes causes the hardest hit.

It is the reason I became a Chaplain back in 2008. I trained to respond to responders knowing that the very thing inside of them causing them to take on those jobs, also caused them the greatest harm.

Oh, no, not all bad news, because that same emotional core holds the power to heal.

This video was done for National Guards and Reservist...the IFOC gave me an award for it because they were using it to help police officers and firefighters. It is called PTSD I Grieve for that reason.
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Sgt. John Rikard of the Asheville Police Department was gone

After Husbands' Suicides, 'Best Widow Friends' Want Police Officers To Reach For Help

NPR
SAMANTHA BALABAN JAMES DOUBEK
June 9, 2019

Nicole Rikard's husband, John Rikard, died by suicide in 2015. She talks with three other widows of police suicide every day.

Nicole Rikard had recently married Sgt. John Rikard of the Asheville Police Department in North Carolina. He had an 8-year-old son, Tucker, from a previous marriage. From the time Nicole and John started dating, they had scarcely been apart.

Soon after they married, however, Nicole had to go to Florida for some work training — she was a crime scene investigator in the same police department. John worked an overnight shift and would call her when he woke up to check in.

But one day, John wasn't answering her texts. Nicole heard from a colleague that he hadn't shown up for work either.

Stuck hundreds of miles away in Florida, Nicole got on the phone with John's colleagues in Asheville. She told the police to break into their house.

Thirty-six agonizing minutes went by. Nicole was vomiting in the shower.

She finally got a phone call from one of John's lieutenants.

"Well, John is gone. And it appears to be self-inflicted," the lieutenant told her.

"And I said, 'What the f*** are you talking about?'"
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NYPD message delivered after loss of 2 officers to suicide in 24 hours

A Police Chief’s Suicide, Then Painful Questions in ‘Hushed Tones’

Friends said Deputy Chief Steven J. Silks took his life not out of despair from his job, but the prospect of losing it.

update Missing NYPD homicide detective Joe Calabrese found dead of suicide at Brooklyn beach

update NYPD mourning veteran chief who killed himself ahead of mandatory retirement

BY KIRSTIN COLE, UPDATED AT 10:39AM, JUNE 6, 2019

Two NYPD officers died by suicide in 24 hours. The commissioner has a message for America's largest police force

CNN
By Shimon Prokupecz
Updated 6:20 AM ET, Fri June 7, 2019

"Seeking help is never a sign of weakness -- it's a sign of great strength. Trained members will listen and connect you with even more help, around the clock. I implore you to seek out -- or to help others find -- the assistance that is so readily available to us all." Commissioner James O'Neill

Police are lit by flashing lights as they stand in formation while the casket of slain New York City Police (NYPD) officer Randolph Holder is carried from the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of New York following his funeral service in the Queens borough of New York City, October 28, 2015. Holder's funeral comes more than a week after he was shot to death while on patrol in New York City's East Harlem neighborhood. He is the fourth New York City officer to be killed on duty in the last 12 months. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

New York (CNN)Two members of the New York Police Department died by suicide within the course of 24 hours, Commissioner James O'Neill said Thursday.

In a note to members of the department, he encouraged individuals to seek help, if needed.

The NYPD is the largest police department in the United States, with approximately 36,000 officers and 19,000 civilian employees.

O'Neill's message reads in full:
"We are mourning the death of two members of our NYPD family this week, both of whom died by suicide in separate incidents less than 24 hours apart.

"Whether you are depressed, going through a separation, having financial difficulties, feeling anxiety, or anything else, you are never alone. Nothing is ever hopeless.

"We cannot hide from this incredibly important discussion. We must not pretend that these things don't happen, or that such tragic deaths are somehow a fact of life. Importantly, we cannot sit idly by and just pray that they don't happen again. We have to take action now. We have to discuss mental health.
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#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife

Marine veteran promotes cause through song

Victim's brother asks for help in preventing police suicides

WCPO News
May 03, 2019

So far this year, 73 police officers have committed suicide in the United States. Suicides are outpacing line of duty deaths for the fourth year in a row.

The brother of a local police officer who took his own life is asking for support for their families and for the cause of treating PTSD among police.

You can help by buying a T-shirt and listening to a song being released as a single on Friday.

The song is "Superman Falls" by John Preston. The song and the T-shirt honor Michael Preston, a local veteran and police officer who took his life in 2016.

WCPO introduced you to John Preston and his songs in 2017.

Michael Preston, a husband and father of four, was a Marine veteran who worked as a deputy for Boone County and then Newport Police.

Post-traumatic stress was not really dealt with during his years of service.
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Would you help them if they needed you?

Who are you driving away? 

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
March 17, 2019

Today is St. Patrick's Day. Tradition says that he drove snakes out of Ireland. That got me thinking about driving other things away, like the people in your life. 

So who are you driving away? Are you pushing people away so they do not see you as being vulnerable? Weaker than they thought you were? 

What is it that keeps you from seeing that you would feel terrible if someone needed you, but pushed you away instead.

St. Patrick

St. Patrick, (flourished 5th century, Britain and Ireland; feast day March 17), patron saint and national apostle of Ireland, credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland and probably responsible in part for the Christianization of the Picts and Anglo-Saxons. He is known only from two short works, the Confessio, a spiritual autobiography, and his Letter to Coroticus, a denunciation of British mistreatment of Irish Christians.

Healing takes a triple play like the trinity. Mind-body and spirit. Leave one out and you will not heal as well as you would by taking care of all the things that make you...you.

Before the end of the 7th century, Patrick had become a legendary figure, and the legends have continued to grow. One of these would have it that he drove the snakes of Ireland into the sea to their destruction. Patrick himself wrote that he raised people from the dead, and a 12th-century hagiography places this number at 33 men, some of whom are said to have been deceased for many years. He also reportedly prayed for the provision of food for hungry sailors traveling by land through a desolate area, and a herd of swine miraculously appeared. Another legend, probably the most popular, is that of the shamrock, which has him explain the concept of the Holy Trinity, three persons in one God, to an unbeliever by showing him the three-leaved plant with one stalk. Traditionally, Irishmen have worn shamrocks, the national flower of Ireland, in their lapels on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17.

St. Patrick took care of poor sailors..what if they were too proud to accept his help? 

Well, that happens all the time...especially when you were the one who made it your job to save other people. Bet you didn't stop to see that it was the same career choice everyone you serve with made too. 

Would you help them if they needed you? Then what's stopping you from asking them for help to stay instead of pushing them away?

Don't give me the stigma crap. If you spent a fraction of the time you use to cover up the pain, on learning what is causing it, the stigma would be proven to be a grim fairy tale. It would not even exist.
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Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio is calling for PTSD care

Ohio fraternal order calls for PTSD care for first responders

The Blade
KATE SNYDER
Blade Staff Writer
February 28, 2019

Officer Payne did not report to work as scheduled on Tuesday, which prompted a welfare check, police said, and indications are that the death was a suicide. He was hired by the Toledo Police Department on Jan. 24, 1997, and served in field operations most of his career.

COLUMBUS — The Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio is calling for post-traumatic stress disorder care for first responders, citing a Toledo police officer’s possible suicide.

In a statement released Thursday, the Ohio FOP highlighted the mental-health hardship officers face in their work, and said the order plans to work with lawmakers on a new bill to provide better resources to police who may be suffering in silence.

“If a police officer breaks his leg carrying an injured child to safety, workers’ comp is there to help him heal,” the Ohio FOP said. “If that same child dies a painful death in the officer’s arms, and the officer isn’t otherwise injured, there is no help for the officer to process and cope ... ”

Toledo officer Jeffrey Payne, 53, died Tuesday in a possible suicide, according to the Toledo Police Department. Lucas County Sheriff John Tharp, whose office has investigated the death, said law enforcement throughout the country could benefit from expanded access to mental health services.
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Seminole County Sheriff trying to prevent suicides...starting with his own

Seminole County sergeant speaks candidly about suffering from PTSD, suicidal thoughts

WFTV 9 ABC News
By: Katy Camp , Lauren Seabrook
Feb 23, 2019

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. - In the mid-'80s, Sgt. Mark Dibona decided on a career. He decided to go into law enforcement, joining the Seminole County Sheriff's Office.

"I've been on the job now almost 34 years," he said.

That's more than three decades of seeing people at their worst, day in, day out. Exposed to tragedy, violence and - at times - overwhelming sadness - Dibona took the advice of those before him and developed a tough guy mentality.

"We were told to toughen up, walk away, have a beer," he told WFTV reporter Lauren Seabrook.

But that hard shell was just that - a shell. The truth of his heart reveals a man who is deeply caring, deeply empathetic and devoted to the people he is committed to protecting.

"A family pulled up next to me about two or three o'clock in the morning and handed me their baby and said, 'My baby's not breathing,'" he recalled. "It seemed like it took forever when I was doing CPR. Unfortunately the baby didn't make it. But to this day, I can still feel the baby on my arm. And that took a toll on me."
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31 law enforcement officers have taken their own lives since 1-1-19

Local deputy's death sparks conversation about police suicides

KWTX 10 News
By Rissa Shaw
Feb 12, 2019

So far in 2019, at least 31 law enforcement officers have taken their own lives, including a young McLennan County jail deputy who graduated from the police academy less than a year ago.

WACO, Texas (KWTX) The recent death of a McLennan County deputy is creating awareness about police suicide.

"We deal with quite a few suicides in the county, but it's very different when one of your own people takes their own life," said Sheriff Parnell McNamara. "It's always a very sad thing when you lose one of your own."

For the third year in a row, police suicides have outnumbered line of duty deaths, according Blue H.E.L.P., a non-profit run by active and retired officers advocating for greater mental health resources for law enforcement.

"The heart of an officer is to do what is right by everyone and to do the best job that we can, and sometimes, we need help," said Lydia Alvarado, Chief of Police for the City of Bellmead.

Alvarado, who's been teaching mental health peace officer certification courses since 2003 and critical incident training (CIT) since 2005, is considered a local expert in mental health as it relates to law enforcement.
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Kansas City Police Officer's organs being donated after suicide

KCPD officer's family to donate organs after self-inflicted gunshot wound

KSHB News
By: 41 Action News Staff
Feb 10, 2019

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department officer remains in critical condition and on life support after a suffering a self-inflicted gunshot wound Friday night.

The officer's family has decided to donate his organs and hospital staff are awaiting organ donor recipients, according to the KCPD.

Officers responded were searching for a missing and endangered person Friday night. In this case, "a dedicated officer who has served our department for approximately 10 years ... was missing and feared to be suicidal," KCPD in a statement.

Liberty police, who were assisting in the search for the officer's vehicle, located it in the Pleasant Valley Baptist Church parking lot about 9 p.m.

Responding police officers found the officer suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The unidentified officer was transported to an area hospital in critical condition.
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He took a job he knew could kill him one day. He wanted to serve his community and save lives. He was an organ donor, so, yet again, he wanted to save lives. So why did the lives of others mean so much to him, but his own did not? Because he never got the message that PTSD is not anything to be ashamed of and those he served with would have tried to save him too!

Washington County Sheriff’s Deputy committed suicide, widow went to war

Cindy Lannon lost her husband to PTSD. He served his community saving lives and protecting others, but suffering in silence, he did not ask for help he needed to save himself. #BreakTheSilentService

A sheriff’s deputy died by suicide. His widow is on a mission to help others with PTSD

Pioneer Press
Mary Divine
February 10, 2019

Cindy Lannon talks about her late husband, Jerry Lannon, 58, a deputy with the Washington County sheriff’s office. “He has just a really strong faith and he loved studying God’s word. He loved history too,” Lannon said. “I felt that the day Jerry died some of his integrity was tarnished. He didn’t want his life to end that way.”

Cindy Lannon holds a picture of her late husband, Jerry Lannon, in May Township on Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019. Lannon, 58, a deputy with the Washington County sheriff’s office who was diagnosed with depression and PTSD, died by suicide last year. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

Cindy Lannon instantly knew something was wrong.

Returning home from a medical appointment the Monday after Thanksgiving, Lannon expected to find her husband’s brown loafers on the front mat.

They weren’t there.

“Your head tells you one thing, but another side of your mind says ‘No, no, no,’ ” Cindy Lannon said. “His truck was in the driveway. I looked around the house, and I went up to our bedroom. The bed wasn’t made — he always made the bed when he got up — and he had taken his cellphone and propped it up on his pillow. It was almost like he was leaving a goodbye note.”

She called her brother Craig Pittman, who lives nearby, and he found Jerry Lannon’s body on the trail that runs behind the couple’s house near Big Carnelian Lake in northern Washington County. The veteran Washington County sheriff’s deputy, SWAT team member and firearms instructor had shot himself in the head. He was 58.

Nationally, law-enforcement officers are more likely to die by suicide than to be killed in the line of duty. At least 159 officers in the U.S. took their own lives in 2018, more than the estimated 145 who died while on the job, according to Blue H.E.L.P., a nonprofit organization that tracks officer suicides. Lannon was one of three officers who died by suicide last year in Minnesota; four died by suicide in Wisconsin.

“It’s a startling trend,” said Sgt. Tim Harris of the Washington County sheriff’s office, who is leading a new mental-health initiative for the department. “We’re very hard on ourselves, and we’re not getting help when we need it. We need to figure out how to change the stigma of seeking help.”

Cindy Lannon, 58, is on a mission to help. She is working to raise awareness about officer suicides and mental illness, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

It’s crucial, she said, that officers seek treatment.
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Why do they still remain clueless about PTSD? It means they survived and there is no shame in that. Considering there are over 7 million other Americans with PTSD after surviving most of the stuff these guys save us from, you'd think they would be the first to understand it...but they do not!

#FightPTSD and #TakeBackYourLife

Privacy Law protects first responders being treated for PTSD

New Law Protects Privacy of First Responders Seeking Mental Health Treatment

NECN
Karen Hensel
January 16, 2019

Those stories included the night that Boston Police Sgt. Brian Fleming recalled nearly took his own life. It was his first time the now-retired officer and peer support counselor talked about what happened. "I took a gun out, put it to my head," Fleming said. "I wanted to die."

Massachusetts police officers and firefighters say a new bill signed into law Wednesday will allow them to ask for help and will save lives.

Surrounded by first responders and lawmakers, Gov. Charlie Baker signed the bill allowing first responders to seek guidance from their peers confidentially. They say that one-on-one conversation with someone who has also been through similar experiences will help them cope with the traumatic events experienced in the line of duty.

They say they can now confide without fear the conversation will be used against them on the job.

"Providing law enforcement officers with the ability to confidentially seek guidance from their peers will help them cope with the events they experience in the line of duty," said Baker. "We are thankful for the Legislature and law enforcement for their advocacy on this bill to increase support for services and reduce stigma around mental health issues. I am glad people saw it through and got it done."
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Canada: Afghanistan veteran/Police Officer song about PTSD

'There is hope': Afghan vet releases song about battling PTSD

CTVNews.ca Staff 
November 1, 2018

A Canadian veteran who served in Afghanistan has released a country song about his struggle to deal with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Graham Trude co-wrote "Seen What I’ve Seen" and hopes to raise awareness of PTSD by donating proceeds from the song to support Wounded Warriors Canada, which runs mental health programs nationally.

Now a police officer in Orangeville, Ont., Trude served with the Canadian Armed Forces for four years with tours of duty in Europe and Afghanistan.

Despite retiring from the military seven years ago, he admits he still has tough days.

“I know other people who have these issues too and I wanted to make them aware that they are not alone and there is hope,” Trude told CTV Barrie.

“It’s not something you can just brush off when you get home. It’s something that really affects not only you but your family as well.”
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PTSD Awareness Music Video - Graham Trude (Seen What I've Seen)

Police Officers share stories of trauma to encourage others

Marysville officers share stories of trauma to encourage others to seek help

Herald Net
By Stephanie Davey
Sunday, October 14, 2018

They both talk about being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and how they found help. They initially spoke together this summer at a statewide convention for school resource officers, and they plan to share their stories at a national conference in July 2019 in Las Vegas.

At Marysville Getchell High, School Resource Officers Chris Sutherland (right) and Jeremy Wood pose for a photo on Thursday in Marysville. Both men have been diagnosed with PTSD; Wood witnessed a shooting and later held a man as he died, and Sutherland was the first officer to go into the cafeteria after the shooting at Marysville Pilchuck High School. (Andy Bronson / The Herald)

MARYSVILLE — He’s been through a lot here.

But this might be the last year Chris Sutherland watches over Marysville Pilchuck High School. He’s been the school’s resource officer for about six years, the length of his contract.

He was one of the first people to enter the cafeteria after the shootings on Oct. 24, 2014. Four years later, the freshman class from that day graduated. Sutherland spoke during their commencement ceremony.

“You are all my heroes,” he told them, pausing at times to hold back tears.

Sutherland knows the campus well. It is where he met his future wife and graduated, and it’s where he hopes to stay for many years to come.

He and his best friend, Jeremy Wood, have started giving presentations about mental health. Both are 44.
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Fake Service Dogs hurting those who need real ones

PTSD Sufferer Says Increasingly Businesses Are Saying No To Service Animals
CBS Miami
By Lauren Pastrana
October 5, 2018

“We’re being hurt. We’re truly being hurt by those not following these regulations and laws that are in place to protect us.”  Eduardo Dieguez

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Eduardo Dieguez believes in second chances, for himself and for his four-legged friends.

“If it wasn’t for one of these guys,” Dieguez says referring to his dog, “I wouldn’t be around.”

With the help of Paws 4 You Rescue, Dieguez trains shelter dogs to be service animals.

“We’re giving them a role to play in somebody’s health,” he said.

He doesn’t just train them, he needs one, as well.

Dieguez suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

“My PTSD stems from abuse when I was a young child,” Dieguez said.

Add in military service and more than a decade as a law enforcement officer, and Dieguez says he knew he needed help.

“That just intensified my fight or flight. And it usually went to fight. Dogs were the only thing that helped bring me down from all that fear and anxiety that I had,” Dieguez explained.

But Dieguez says it’s getting tougher to take his service animal with him in to public places.

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Ex-cop has to fight PTSD again, after therapist attacked

Woman says Kissimmee counselor, priest took advantage of her
WFTV
By: Len Kiese
Oct 5, 2018

The former law enforcement officer said she began seeing De Jesus as a patient last year for anxiety, depression, panic disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. "I was there at one of the darkest points in my life, seeking help," she said.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. - A woman said she trusted an Osceola County therapist to help her through one of her darkest times. Instead, she said he took advantage of her.

"It is the most disgusting feeling and such a violation," she said. She is not being identified to protect her privacy.

The Kissimmee Police Department said more women have come forward with accusations against that mental health counselor and Episcopal priest, bringing the number of accusers now to three.

The suspect is already facing battery charges, but even with these two other accusers he's not facing any more charges so far.

Police said a Kissimmee woman won't press charges but will testify against the counselor when he heads to trial.

The other accuser said it happened in California, so it would be up to authorities there to bring charges.
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Chicago Police Officer Suicide Rate 60% Higher Than Others

Chicago police officer suicide rate 60-percent higher than other departments
FOX 32 News
October 1, 2018

In a FOX 32 special report: a hidden battle behind the badge.

The tragic trend of police suicides is hitting home in Chicago, with officers taking their own lives at alarming rates.

FOX 32’s Elizabeth Matthews explains why the numbers are higher here than anywhere else.

“He wanted to help everybody, he wanted to help the world, not only certain people. He started noticing, after high school, how bad the world is, and his mission in life was to fix it,” said Ark Maciaszek.

Ark describes his cousin Scott Tracz as loud and passionate, with a big heart. Scott served as a Chicago police officer, working in some of the city's toughest neighborhoods.

“Once he got on it, this guy was 100 percent devoted to it. He said this is it. This is what I want to do. This is how I'm going to fix this,” Ark said.

But at age 30, the job began to take its toll on Scott, and Ark began asking questions.

“I wanted more details so I started asking him, and he would never tell me. He said - this is not the right time, this is not the right time to talk,” Ark said.

Ark says his cousin became quiet and distant.

“He'd seen some bad things happening to good people. He couldn't understand why,” Ark said. “He would never mention the word suicide, or harming himself. That's not Scott.”

But on December 27th, 2016 - his family's worst fears were realized.
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