One in every seven police officers worldwide suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder or depression, and one in every 10 struggles with other mental illnesses.
Officers in Bloomington, Minnesota, are making sure to check in and take care of their fellow officers.
Amos Olivarez is the wellness director at the Bloomington Police Department.
“What I see is this beautiful picture of what wellness could eventually be for us,” Olivarez said.
He doesn’t have a badge, but he does have access, working the streets and watching the pressure.
“I didn’t realize how often they are dealing with really hard things. They are dealing with people on their absolute worst day for the most part,” Olivarez said. “Police work in general is high pressure, but police work in the Twin Cities is really high pressure, because you can’t make a mistake. They’ve got to try to do it by the book every single time, they’ve got to show up with compassion every single time, and every situation is very different.”
It’s a truth one commanding officer knows well.
“The stress of this job, both dealing with the calls in the streets, whether it’s domestics or whatever calls we go to, and the internal politics of local government and everything else, it takes a toll on you and I think that was a forgotten piece of the puzzle,” Sgt. Nick Sassor said.
Yet an officer is all Sassor ever wanted to be.
“When people go to college and they’re like, ‘I don’t know what my major is,’ I couldn’t wrap my head around it,” he said. “I knew exactly what I wanted to do. There was no doubt.”
He’s helped save lives, and he’s seen lives lost, even young ones.
“I have done CPR on an infant before on a call and giving that news to the mom, it’s devastating, it’s really hard to do,” Sassor said.
That’s why he’s been supporting the department’s new one-of-a-kind holistic wellness program.
“There’s just a lot more camaraderie and togetherness, and just knowing that the department cares about your mental health,” Sassor said.
It’s a program led by Olivarez.
“I’ve got cousins, I’ve got uncles who have retired from law enforcement, sheriff’s departments, police departments. I’ve got cousins who are currently active,” he said. “I have always had a heart for first responders.”
Olivarez used to be a pastor and a volunteer at the department. The chief helped get a new grant to give him a new purpose.
“I wanted someone to come in from the community to help hold us accountable to our core values,” Chief Booker T. Hodges said. “We need to make sure that our officers are healthy, we also need to make sure that our departments are in alignment with our community. Because when they’re not in alignment, you are gonna have problems.”
Olivarez serves as an outside eye as to how officers treat others and themselves.
“A healthy cop, a cop that is holistically well, that means that they are out doing really good police work from a place of wholeness and wellness,” he said.
His lessons on working out, balance at home and seeking mental help are being heard.
“Before it was just dust yourself up and you’ll be fine, and now it’s, there’s more debriefs, there’s more making sure that mentally and physically you are making it through this job,” Sassor said.
So he will continue to serve, so they can serve, too.
“We’re going to do our very best to fight against that to normalize wellness,” Olivarez said.
If you or someone you know is in emotional distress, get help from the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. Trained crisis counselors are available 24 hours a day to talk about anything.
In addition, help is available from the National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI. Call the NAMI Helpline at 800-950-6264 or text “HelpLine” to 62640. There are more than 600 local NAMI organizations and affiliates across the country, many of which offer free support and education programs.
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