Mental Health Awareness – Let’s Start Talking About It!

 

A guest post by Public Safety Program Coordinator Lora Setter

The month of May was designated as Mental Health Awareness Month in 1949. Awareness begins with talking and listening…sounds simple, right? And yet, even though Mental Health Awareness Month has existed for 72 years, a stigma remains surrounding mental illness — a testament to just how difficult these discussions are for some.

From my experience, I know the public safety community to be particularly reluctant when it comes to talking about their own mental health issues, in part because of a strong cultural mindset that “there’s no crying in baseball.” However, we know that due to the nature of their job duties, public safety personnel may be at increased risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

LMCIT Public Safety Program
Coordinator Lora Setter

The good news is PTSD is treatable. To treat it, it’s important to create compassionate work environments where public safety personnel feel that “it’s OK to not be OK.” 

Four years ago, the incurred cost for public safety workers’ compensation PTSD claims was a little more than $2 million. Today, the incurred cost for public safety workers’ compensation PTSD claims are just over $29 million. Along with the financial costs, cities are losing needed public safety personnel with years of experience to a condition that is treatable. 

A Harvard Business Review article from November 2020, “Talking About Mental Health with Your Employees — Without Overstepping,” notes that, “Leaders at all levels need to put mental health ‘on the table’ — to talk about it, invite others to talk about it, and work actively to develop resources and plans for their employees.” 

Things you can do to spread the word:

• Share the importance of leaders talking about their own mental health struggles as an important first step in creating a supportive work environment. Remind employees that everyone struggles at times. 
• Talk openly and/or survey public safety personnel to find out what they think would be most helpful to them in managing their mental health. 
• Connect with your health care provider/employee assistance program (EAP) to determine if your employee group health plan includes mental health and telehealth services. Invite them to speak to your public safety employees about what services they provide. 
• Create plans to keep people working during recovery from PTSD and plans to get them back to work. 
• Review the League’s Public Safety Mental Health Toolkit designed to help city leaders gain information about public safety mental health concerns. 

Let’s take this opportunity to care about and talk about the mental wellness of our public safety teams — we can’t afford not to. 

Remember: Responder Safety = Public Safety

Up next: Move Over Laws and Responder Safety

In the meantime, stay safe and be careful -
Lora

National Use-of-Force Data Collection

Is your police agency submitting data to the National Use-of-Force Data Collection? By participating in this important collection, your agency will help the public and law enforcement understand the facts about when police officers use force in the course of their duties. 

Minnesota Statute 626.5534 — which went into effect on August 1, 2020 — mandated the chief law enforcement officer provide the information requested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to the superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. This information must include each incident of law enforcement use of force resulting in a fatality, serious bodily injury, or when a firearm is discharged by a law enforcement officer at or in the direction of a person.

Police-involved shootings and use of force have long been topics of national discussion. The opportunity to analyze information related to use-of-force incidents and to have an informed dialogue is hindered by the lack of nationwide statistics. To address the topic, representatives from major law enforcement organizations have been working in collaboration with the FBI to develop a national use-of-force data collection.

With a national data collection, data users can view use-of-force incidents involving law enforcement from a nationwide perspective. The goal of the resulting statistics is not to offer insight into single use-of-force incidents but to provide an aggregate view of the incidents reported and the circumstances, subjects, and officers involved. 

The data collected will focus on information that is readily known and can be reported within the first few days after a use-of-force occurrence. Statistical reports will emphasize the collective nature of the data and will not assess whether the officers involved in use-of-force incidents acted lawfully or within the bounds of department policy.

Data about use-of-force events will provide statistics that will help measure the issue, find areas of concern, allow more informed talks, and find better answers about police use of force. The study of these data will also help differentiate between isolated events and trends involving these incidents.

How it works

The National Use-of-Force Data Collection will gather facts about the circumstances, subjects, and officers involved in use-of-force incidents. To protect privacy, the data collection will not include specifics about cases, disclose the names of people involved, or provide opinions on whether uses of force were justified. The system will gather details such as:

• Date, time, and reason for contact.
• Age, sex, race, and ethnicity of subject(s).
• Whether the officer(s) was on duty or injured.

The new Minnesota legislation now mandates this reporting for Minnesota law enforcement agencies and the chief law enforcement officer must submit monthly use-of-force reports with the easy-to-use online tool. If agencies have no events to report for a month, they will simply send a Zero Report that takes just seconds to submit. Eventually, local agencies will be able to download reports that will allow them to compare their data to that of agencies across Minnesota or the nation.

The National Use-of-Force Data Collection will help police and federal law enforcement agency leaders gather, report, and see their own data at the local level. The collection will also provide data about events in a specific region, in a state, or across the nation. The Minnesota BCA has released a National Use-of-Force Fact Sheet, and it explains that the information about use-of-force incidents must be submitted through the Supplemental Reporting System (SRS) using the combined Firearms Discharge and/or National Use-of-Force Report.

The FBI continues to encourage all police and federal law enforcement agencies to take part in the National Use-of-Force Data Collection, as participation is key. This program will give the FBI the information it needs to provide Americans with a better understanding of police use of force. To learn more about this important data collection initiative — including key resources — visit the FBI's Use-of-Force webpage.

If you have any questions, you may also contact me at tstille@lmc.org or give me a call at (651) 215-4051.

Remember:  Responder Safety = Public Safety

Up next: Mental Health Awareness

In the meantime, stay safe and be careful -
Tracy