Confronting the Silent Battle: Mental Health and the Valor of Public Safety Professionals

As I recount the heart-wrenching losses within our ranks, the specter of suicide looms heavily over the conversation. The stark reality faced by public safety professionals, whose daily grind often goes unseen, is laid bare in this episode. We confront the often-ignored mental health challenges that come with the territory of serving and protecting. With the Ruderman Foundation's alarming statistics as a backdrop, I take you through the personal reflections on the tragic end met by too many colleagues, underscoring the urgency for genuine support and resources.

Transitioning from somber reflection to hopeful action, the episode extends a heartfelt call to all listeners to share their experiences in "Case Chronicle," a segment dedicated to the stories of justice, struggle, and triumph from the community. We honor the unwavering commitment of our public service professionals, bringing forth the challenges they face, including emotional burdens and fiscal strains. This discussion ultimately serves as a profound reminder of the sacrifices made and the pivotal role of community support, as we advocate for self-care and peace at the core of public service.

Email: publicsafetybywomen@gmail.com
Website: https://womeninpublicsafety.com
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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:43

afternoon everybody. This is Harriyel Westmore with the Women in Public Safety podcast. This is a podcast where I discuss different types of topics that are related to women who work in public safety corrections, law enforcement, human services, medical personnel, anything that has to do with serving the public from a women's perspective. So welcome. Before we get started for episode number 12, I want you guys to please hit that like and subscribe button and a little bit more housekeeping. I want to kind of talk about some of the comments, some of the feedback that I've been receiving on some of the past episodes. Most of it has been positive and I appreciate that. But for those who want to give negative feedback, I would want to say this I don't mind constructive criticism at all. You don't have to agree with the content that I give or some of the commentary that I may have on a personal note. You may agree to disagree. That's fine, I respect that. But I do want my content and my show to be a respectful type place for people to have their comment, but yet comment in a respectful way. You don't have to be an idiot, quite frankly, to as your feedback. So if you feel that this is not the type of channel for you. You can please, you know, don't say anything, just continue on to another channel that may be more towards what you like. So I had to say that because I had to respond. Normally I really don't respond to any type of negative comments, but when it gets to be ignorant comments, then I do have to respond, and maybe I shouldn't, because that's just feeding into the ignorance. But you know, sometimes you do have to say something to kind of, you know, let people know that I'm not that tolerant when it comes to disrespect. So please share your comments, give constructive feedback. Even if it's not something that you agree with, we can agree to disagree. This is a grown up channel and I expect grown up people in my channel. So, with that being said, I got that off my chest. Now I feel better. So let's move on to episode number 12.

Speaker 1: 3:31

Shall we, before we get into today's topic, I do want to give a trigger warning. This is about those who are in the public servant type profession, who makes the sad choice of unaliving themselves and I have to be careful with the words for the algorithm. So I do want to talk about that. It is a very, very sensitive topic and if it triggers you. I do understand, and you may not want to listen for this particular podcast for this week, but I wanted to talk about it because I've encountered, within the last month, two people who are in the public service profession.

Speaker 1: 4:27

One was a female, which is very kind of not usual, I might say, but nevertheless it's heartbreaking. You never know what people are going through, especially those of us who are on or put ourselves on the line every day and deal with the public in our capacity. You don't know what we go through on our personal lives and, for whatever reason, I had a colleague I didn't know her personally, but I knew of her who decided to. You know, only she knew, only she obviously knew what was going on within her so that she decided to unalive herself and it was done, unfortunately, while she was on duty. Another person from the same facility, the same type of profession, same, actually inside the same prison. They passed away.

Speaker 1: 5:43

I'm not sure that that circumstances, but I know the first, the female officer. She decided to end her life. It's very sad and it you know it takes. It's always a shocking for those of us who, you know, we, everybody seemed to think that people who are in these type of professionals are strong and and to some extent we have to be in order to, you know, deal with a lot of the situations that we deal with on a daily basis, but it does take a toll on you and if you do not have the support, the positive support system whether it's family, friends, colleagues around you then it definitely can affect you mentally.

Speaker 1: 6:39

I'm gonna try to pull up some information as far as statistics for people who decide to end their life being in these type of professions. The only thing that I saw that was kind of a current was that, unaliving, as of January, of 22, the rate of people who decide to take their life has been a matter of concern. It depends on the various types of groups that you're talking about. We're talking about law enforcement professions, then, yes, I mean it is very alarming as far as the rate. There was a cited study by the Ruderman Foundation's white paper called the Ruderman's White Paper on Mental Health. In the S word I'm not gonna say, but you get the meaning of what I say when I say the S First responders. This was published in 2018 and it was reported that 103 reported police officers unalived themselves and 140 reported of firefighters. They also are unfortunately unalived themselves, but it's the study shows that police officers really surpasses that number of public service, public service professions that are in that statistic, whether it's in the line of duty, on the job or off duty that they take their life.

Speaker 1: 8:41

And it's very important to note that the common mitigating factors that could be a tribute to taking that final, making that final decision in your life. And it's usually through traumatic experiences that you're not going to be able to do that. And it's very important to note that usually through traumatic experiences we are trained to be not to take things internally, even though I mean, honestly, that's kind of a, that's kind of a moxie moron, because you, as a human being, we take things. I mean we have emotions and it's hard not to feel some kind of emotion when you deal with traumatic events, when you're dealing with crimes against children. That's also disturbing, that may be a trigger for those who have experienced that traumatic experience and their childhood. And then now you're having to deal with that on your job. So that's that takes the toll the overall job stress with the high volume of caseloads, the constant daily exposure to critical incidents and your expectation to be alert and responsive at all times, and this is not just law enforcement or human service, this is especially military, military personnel. You are exposed to danger every single day and especially when it's in a war type situation and it does it takes the toll.

Speaker 1: 10:47

I know a lot of public safety professionals feel social isolation because of the nature of their work, which, you know, a lot of times involves spending a lot of time away from their family and friends. And you need to keep a lot of what you're going through as far as your daily work. You don't want to bring it home to your loved one, so you kind of keep it inside you and you don't want to talk about it. And that takes the toll because you can't talk about it. And then a lot of times you can't, don't you know you're not, you're not to talk about it because of confidentiality, especially right off the bat.

Speaker 1: 11:29

I could think about those who work undercover, like undercover narcotic agents. You know, when you work undercover you are a whole. You have to put on this whole new persona of person. You have to blend in with the element that you're investigating it and that in itself is very high-strut. It's very high-strut because you have to. Actually you can't go home and pretty much talk about it because you might blow your cover. You never know who's watching you, so you have to. I mean, that is very, very difficult to deal with.

Speaker 1: 12:16

And then you have the stigma that is surrounding mental health in many of the public service or public safety organizations. Some professionals don't want to seek the mental health because it's a stigma and which can convert to people might think that you're weak because you are seeking help. It's a catch-22. It's a catch-22 situation, but we have to come to grips that we are human. I would be more afraid for those who don't get the help that they need. And just, you know, go on to work and keep everything internal and it fosters and fosters and fosters until one day you just snap and that could create a very dangerous and serious situation among not only for yourself but for your colleagues or for your family. You know people who are around you. You may just just one day, that one little piece of event may just set you off and at that point there's no turning back. So you know my whole channel and it's not.

Speaker 1: 13:52

You know this is not just for women. Today's topic is not for women, I know. In the beginning I said this is, you know I talk about situations that are related to, you know, female who are working in these type of professions. But today this is about everybody who works, you know, in this type of profession we have to humble ourselves and know when something is wrong and we need to talk to somebody. We need to get the help that we need, even if you have to get on meds. You know that's up to your doctor, that's up to you and your provider, but you have to find self-care is so important. I cannot stress that enough.

Speaker 1: 14:38

What my colleague, what she was going through, you know, from what I understand, nobody really understood. You know, nobody knew she's. My understanding from what I've heard was that you know there were some, maybe some personal issues that were going on and but then you know, you come to work and you put on this facade that you're and you still got a job to do and for whatever reason, only she knows it was just too much for her and she came to work one day she was on her post and she was found self-inflicted wounded and you know it was a very, very tragic, very sad. I could think of another instance that I knew, someone who was a police officer in one of the departments that I used to work in. Again, he took his life while on his shift and you know, they couldn't get him on the radio, dispatch couldn't get him on the radio and next thing, you know, they went to his last location that he was supposed to. I guess he was on a call or something and he did not respond to dispatch and they found his, his cruiser, who was, I think it was in a parking lot of a shopping center or something, and they found him and it was a pair of self-inflicted, one, fatal self-inflicted one. Again, nobody saw the signs. Nobody saw the signs.

Speaker 1: 16:57

We just, again, we don't know what people are going through in our, in our personal lives, and it's very sad and it's, you know, we have to kind of. We got to give support to each other. You may not, you know, like your colleague, there might be an issue of differences of opinion. You know, may not, you know, get along with that colleague, but the end of the day, the whole idea is for all of us to be to come home safe and to feel supported. Like I said, there's people that I don't, you know necessarily, you know would see them as a friend. But if they need help and if there's something I can do to help them to help them, you know, emotionally or you know just being a colleague, a supportive colleague then of course we don't have to be friends, but we do have to have respect for each other and, like I said, if you or anybody out here listening to this can relate and you know, you feel that you're at that point in your in your life that you're going through something that is a struggle to you, please, please, reach out for help.

Speaker 1: 18:26

I know a lot of organizations, many, you know, if not all, organizations. They have some kind of employee assistance program and it is confidential. I think I mentioned before I was very leery about you know going. You know going to, if I did need it to talk to somebody. What I, you know go to someone that is provided at no cost to from my organization because of the level of confidentiality. But by law that's part of HIPAA they can't disclose any type of information. If you go to a health provider or you know mental health provider, they can't disclose anything to your superiors unless there's some, there's some concern for any type of issue that may affect a certain person within the agency or you know the whole department as a whole. If there's an issue that may affect them that you need to be, you know, if they're not forewarned then maybe. But otherwise, anything that's going on in your personal life, if you're discussing things that are on a personal basis, they can't disclose that to HR or anything like that. That's just, you know. That's just a violation of health provider and patient confidentiality. So I want to hear what you think.

Speaker 1: 20:29

It's a very sensitive topic, but it's a topic that we have to become aware of and understand and for those who don't work in these type of professions, it kind of shows some kind of grace to those who are putting themselves out there on the line to serve the public. You know, a lot of people say, well, you made the choice to get into this profession. Yeah, we did because we have a. Obviously we went into it to because we care about our society, our communities and we want to try to do what we can to help serve our community. It's like the choice that you made of what you're doing, whatever that is. So you know, don't be so insensitive in thinking. You know when we are expressing some of our frustrations. Because I do this? Because I want the public to understand this is not the ordinary bitching session that you know that we're dealing with. You know the you know less, we're not making enough money, which is definitely that's definitely an issue. So I made a comment when I was talking about a couple of episodes back that that I, that us that were always crying for more money and that if you don't like what you're doing, then you can move to another state.

Speaker 1: 22:23

First of all, what is moving to another state? Have anything to do with anything? I think you know these types of jobs. I mean there's no enough money in the world. But I mean, I think people have this misconception that we are getting paid all these boo-cool money that the taxpayers are paid and, by the way, those of us who are employees of governmental agencies, we are also taxpayers, just so you know. That doesn't exempt us, for just because we work for police departments or federal or state or county or city agencies, does that mean that we don't have to pay taxes, because we pay taxes too. So when you talk about saying I'm you know I'm a taxpayer and I'm paying your salary, well, guess what? I'm a taxpayer too and what we go through every day to deal with people that are, you know, ungrateful and not talking about you know, just you know ungrateful or just you know, just clueless as to what all it entails in doing this job. And for you know, and we're a lot of us are barely, you know, having to work two or three jobs. Now it's getting to the point that you have to do a lot of off-duty work just to kind of make the minimum, the basic, making your basic needs.

Speaker 1: 24:00

So yeah, sometimes it does make us feel good when we know that are the people that we serve will say we appreciate you. That goes a long way. And I know, you know, my partner and I, every time we go, you know we're working out in the field and we, you know a stranger will come up to us and say you know, thank you, you know we appreciate, you know, I know it's a heart, especially, you know we see two females. They always tease us and you know, but they said, you know we appreciate it because I don't know if I could do it. You know, just a little simple thank you, just like what we do in the military for those who, you know, choose to serve their country. Just a little thank you. It really it is a difference.

Speaker 1: 25:12

And then for those, you know, and truth be told, a lot of our, the resources in our government are getting limited, more limited, but we're getting more, more work powered on us, but they're taking away a lot of the resources that we need to do our job. So we're just a lot of agencies are doing it on a bare minimum. You know, yeah, I could be in a whole lot worse situations where, especially rural, smaller communities who are working on bare, you know, bare bones because they don't have the funding. The state, you know come from a poor state or poor county and the funding is very limited. And then you have, you know, maybe the personnel is very small but they're doing the best that they can with what they have.

Speaker 1: 26:07

And then, you know, I just all I'm saying, I say this to say this because I mean some people are just the public, some of the public, not all, but are very clueless as to what you know, public servants, public service professionals have to go through, and that includes military, that includes teachers, that includes nursing us. You know, health care, people who are in the health care, people who work in prisons and things like that the jails, and we go through a lot because we are dealing with a lot and then we do. We're dealing with people who are walking around here with, who are obviously have mental health issues and being untreated. So we're having we're dealing with people who I I say we are dealing with the result of people who are been on, who've been on drugs, a lot of substance abuse issues. We have to deal with a lot of that. So it's a lot, it's a lot.

Speaker 1: 27:24

So my hats off to teachers, definitely off. My hats off to those who are chose to serve our country through military services, those who are fighter fighters, those who are police officers, those who are, you know, corrections officers, those who are probation parole, the court system, even though the court system, yes, I mean it's corrupt. You know, we can go on and on about the corruption and on all these types of agencies, but for those of us who, you know, try to do the best that we can with the integrity and and the, the and still have it. You know, our main goal is to make sure that our public is safe, that our communities are safe, and then that's who you know. That's my hats off and I appreciate you All right.

Speaker 1: 28:23

So, with that being said, yeah, I had to go off on my soapbox today. I had to, but please let me know what you think If you have a story I'm looking for. I guess I mentioned I'm doing a case chronicle segment. I'm doing that three times a month. I'm going to tell you a particular particular story that you will like me to tell on your behalf.

Speaker 1: 28:46

Or if you like to become a guest for the case chronicle episode and you want to tell your story about personal life I mean, I think that's a person of the studies personal life, a case that has stand out to you, what happened with? I like we're always like to hear you know about what happened with that particular case and the end result of that case and you know if it's still ongoing or not. Obviously, you don't have to name names and please don't do that. Just keep it generalized, but just get that's the gist of the the issue and how it's being solved and what is. You know what was the end result? Was justice serve or was justice not serve, or whatever.

Speaker 1: 29:33

You can email me at public safety by women at gmailcom and let's set up a time to talk about it and then we'll, you know, definitely make sure that you, you know you can tell your story.

Speaker 1: 29:46

Or, if you don't want to tell your story yourself, you can kind of, you know, let me know what the story is and I'll, you know, definitely give you a shout out, I'll credit you of who you know, of where the the story came from, the case study came from, and I'll definitely give you a shout out. And I appreciate you know, you, you know wanting to share, and so let let everybody know what you know, what you're doing and how you know how you're doing it and the end result of what you did in terms of you know whether it was a great outcome for everybody or, unfortunately, you know, it wasn't what you were, you know, hoping to be. So, with that being said, I want everybody to please stay safe and just take care of yourself mentally, physically, emotionally and within yourself, spiritually. All right, you guys. Peace, and I'll talk with you next week. Bye, yeah.