Amy Ikerd, MSW LCSW LCAC
“Resilience” is a word that is used often in both clinical and law enforcement wellness spaces. But what does it really mean, particularly regarding cops?
Resilience refers to one’s ability to cope with adversity or a crisis. It involves bouncing back from difficult experiences with flexibility and adaptability and being able to effectively think through problems with a future focus. Given an officer’s repeated exposure dangerous, disturbing, and high stress events, investing in one’s resilience is essential to be able to do the job and keep their physical and psychological wellness intact.
As an EMDR therapist primarily working with law enforcements officers (LEOs), I can attest that bolstering an officer’s resilience is absolutely imperative in the treatment and prevention of PTSD. Research in this area has shown that, when an officer’s resilience is taxed, the chances of developing PTSD after work-related incidents goes up.
Investing in resilience can involve utilizing peer support, being cognizant of diet and exercise, and practicing mindfulness-based stress reduction strategies like breathwork or yoga. My goal is to highlight two very important issues that regularly require attention in my office but often seem to be left out of resilience conversations: sleep and institutional support.
Getting good sleep resets our ability to be focused, alert and emotionally stable during waking hours. When we fall asleep, how quickly we fall asleep, how long we stay asleep, and how we feel when we wake up the next day are all part of the formula for getting a good, restful sleep. Part of achieving this is by working with the officer to understand Circadian rhythm, which is the body’s 24-hour cycle of regulating hormones, digestion, and temperature.
For instance, waking up and getting sunlight within an hour or two of sunrise generates in internal brain response: a pulse of cortisol and epinephrine, signaling the brain to be alert and awake. Then, an internal timer is set to release Melatonin, the hormonal sleep signal, 12-14 hours later. Keeping a consistent schedule with waking up and going to bed improves the chances of falling asleep with ease and remaining in a restful sleep state.
Creating a routine for sleep and awake time can be challenging with varying shifts, working overtime, and outside-of-work obligations. However, helping an officer develop a routine that has structure, with some built in flexibility, can be a worthwhile investment. To include being mindful of caffeine consumption and screen time later in the day.
While an officer has a degree of personal agency with sleep, institutional support is often not within their direct control. Research in this area has revealed that a perceived lack of support can be highly damaging to an officer’s resilience. This issue is discussed more frequently in my sessions with LEOs than nearly all other work-related concerns.
Police1’s recent publication “Wellness leadership starts with your supervisors” highlights this issue quite nicely. Although an agency as a whole has the opportunity to provide authentic support to its officers via policy and messaging, supervisors impact the culture of a department more than anyone else. Many larger departments have solid wellness units in place; however, these agencies need their supervisors to believe that wellness matters for it to be felt by those who serve under them.
Important questions an agency can ask:
- Do our leaders merely check a box, or are they being authentic in their interactions with supervisees?
- Are our leaders performative when it comes to wellness, or does the talk match the behavior?
- Do our leaders know their people well enough to be able to spot an emerging problem and assist in getting out in front of it?
- Is our culture of supervision merely focused on discipline, or does it also have a strong relational component?
For agencies that are vested in inventorying their structure and culture and looking for new strategies, collaborating with your wellness unit is often the most practical and useful starting point. Also, many agencies have officers that go through a leadership academy . . would it be worthwhile to consider new ideas that have emerged via the capstones? Outside of the law enforcement sphere, agencies may consider utilizing resources from organizations like the Center for Institutional Courage.