Wellness is trending in our profession. This is likely not news to you, especially if you are in a leadership position. You’ve probably heard, “It’s OK to not be OK” and have attended a recent conference where wellness was talked about in multiple breakout sessions. Heck, you may have even heard sarge or the lieutenant in the briefing room talk about their own therapy journey. From where I sit, this is an incredible leap forward for the men and women who do the job. Normalizing seeking help, reducing barriers to accessing that help and facilitating that help at the agency level are essential as we move our profession forward and do a better job taking care of our people.

With every solution comes new challenges. Many, if not most, of the interventions being offered by organizations are responsive or reactive, meaning they are meant to mitigate the stress, trauma, moral injury and organizational tension that has already happened. Similarly, most cops don’t utilize resources like therapy until they have hit the basement of their own rock bottom. 

It’s difficult for the helpers to recognize they need help, much less accept it. I have had many cops come to see me in my practice after their spouse has asked them to leave, after they’ve looked for their answers in the bottom of a bottle or after they’ve pushed away everyone who loves them. So much damage has been done by that point, and some of it is irreversible. Nearly every single one of them had told me “Doc, if I had been coming to see you sooner, this (divorce, alcohol problem, IA, suicide attempt, etc.) may never have happened.”

Wellness programs are “missing it” if they are only looking at responsive interventions for their personnel. We know the job will come with inevitable challenges that infiltrate your sleep, your relationships and your ability to care for yourself. As we like to say, “If it’s predictable its preventable” (Gordon Graham). So, let’s talk about prevention. Specifically, I want to discuss a tactic known as wellness visits.

The what

Wellness visits are when an officer shall sit with a psychologist or therapist for an hour once a quarter, once a year or once every other year (depending on your assignment) to talk or learn about “stuff.” The hour is confidential, nonevaluative and is not considered therapy. Not in the traditional sense, anyway. There is no record-keeping and no note taking. The purpose of the hour is to expose cops to therapists in a non-threatening environment which normalizes a resource they may decide to utilize presently or in the future. The time can be used to decompress, discuss stress-mitigation tactics, process critical incidents, discuss family stress … its really meant to be open and flexible. When the hour is up, the hour is up, and both the cop and therapist go their separate ways.

The why

Generally speaking, cops shall see psychologists under two circumstances. Pre-employment evaluations and fitness-for-duty evaluations. In both of those situations, the job of the psychologist is to determine, through testing and observation, if the candidate is mentally “fit” enough to become an officer or if the officer is mentally “fit” enough to continue to be one. In both settings, there is a power differential — not only is the psychologist in a place of authority, but confidentiality (in the traditional therapeutic sense) is compromised. Some information will be getting back to the organization whether the candidate likes it or not. Not only is this an uncomfortable position for cops to be in (not being in charge, not knowing what’s coming next), but it gives cops the impression that the primary job of a psychologist is to assess and report. If we expose our people to therapists a third way, through the wellness visit, there is a higher likelihood that if they need support in the future, they will consider seeking that support. 

An added benefit is if the therapist you have doing wellness visits is also available to provide therapy, the officer and the therapist already have a preestablished relationship before the bad thing happens. It’s much easier for the officer to pick up the phone and call someone they know versus a complete stranger.

The how

Every agency and every officer is at a different place on their “wellness journey.” Some are just beginning, and others are well on their way to making wellness “the way we’ve always done it.” Regardless, if your organization is starting wellness visits the way you communicate the intent and roll out the initiative matters. Here are some tips for rolling out your wellness visit program:

1. Educate, educate, educate! Sending one email is not enough. First, not everyone reads their email and second, it does not offer the opportunity for questions and answers. Instead, have a trusted member of the wellness team or command staff attend every briefing to explain what wellness visits are and why the organization believes they are important. Better yet, have the therapist that will be doing the visits join the officer in the briefing, so the cadre has a chance to meet him or her. 
2. Choose your therapist wisely.
   The program will fail if the therapist doing your wellness visits is not culturally competent. I know that there are bidding processes in county and city governments and we have to put things out to RFP. Make a case for choosing the right resource and not the cheapest resource. Take time writing the RFP and make a case for why cultural competency is essential to the program’s success. Advertise the position within trusted circles, such as the Fraternal Order of Police and International Association of Chiefs of Police. 
3. Offer some flexibility. If the officer already has a therapist, consider allowing them to “check” the wellness visit box during their normal therapy appointments. We don’t want to oversaturate our officers; we want to help them. 
4. This is a department directive, and they should get paid for their time. This is not a “do this on your own time” initiative. If we are mandating our officers to do something, we need to pay our people for their time. That being said, if an officer prefers to do their visit on their days off, this ought to be allowed. If wellness visits are done on duty, my recommendation is to have them done off site or in a part of the building that is privateish. You don’t want someone to walk out of their visit and into their supervisor first thing in the hallway. Some officers need time to decompress, and we don’t want to throw them into a stressful situation right away. A 15- or 30-minute buffer is decent enough.

In sum, think of wellness visits as stretching before a workout. It may be slightly inconvenient or seem like it’s not having a great impact when, in actuality, it helps prevent injury and makes you a better, more well-rounded athlete. When the inevitable stress, trauma, moral injury and organizational tension arise, the officer is better equipped to manage it in a healthy way and knows where to go for help when they need it. 

Wellness is trending in our profession. Don’t let this be a lost opportunity.