I Didn't Get to Say "Goodbye"...

Kevin Murphy E.O.W. 10-05-2016

I write this with a very heavy heart as my best friend Kevin Murphy from the Henderson, NV Police Department took his own life on 10-05-2016.  One of those days where you'll remember for the rest of your life where you were.  I was in Phoenix presenting when I got the call and the news of his death literally brought me to my knees.  It hurt and hurt bad.  I even struggle with the word "suicide" because that's something that doesn't happen to my friends.  I deal with people in crisis everyday and for the first time I didn't know what to do and didn't realize I was about to go into crisis.  I'll talk more about that later but I want to tell you about my best friend.

Kevin was the Director of the Henderson PD PEAP Program (Police Employee Assistance Program) and he has been with Safe Call Now since inception as not only a Peer Advocate but also an Advisory Board Member.  Kevin and I hit it off the first time we met.  Not because we both help those in crisis but because we both had genuine interest in each others personal lives and how each others families were doing.  He's one of the few people that I could talk to about life and keep "work" out of the conversation.  What made Kevin so special was his humor, his smile and his genuine care about me and how I was doing.  At Kevin's funeral one thing that was said over and over is that you always felt "safe" when you were with Kevin.  You know what?  They were a 100% right.

Anytime I flew into Las Vegas I would always tell my wife that...  "I get to see Kev this week".  Kevin always picked me up at the airport and we would spend quality time together and share about "Life".  He also always told me that I should fold any dollar bills I had in my wallet in half and I would theoretically double my money while in Las Vegas.  Really???  I'm a drug addict in recovery, that's not going to happen.  He and I would laugh and laugh, you know those laughs that come deep from your belly.  I was honored to be asked to speak at his full police/military funeral and I just knew I would come up with something so eloquent which he deserved.  To be honest, I didn't know what I was going to say because I was struggling with my own emotions.

Is it Depression or Burnout???

By Safe Call Now's Dr. Laura Brodie

Something that is not recognized by many in the civilian world is that our First Responders as a whole are more psychologically healthy than the general population at the time of hiring. How can I say this?  Well, very few careers require the psychological screening and assessment that First Responders have to pass in order to obtain their job.  In doing such a screening, the hope is to protect the public from someone who is unsafe, but the hidden benefit is to hopefully protect the individual doing the job from many of the psychological disorders that can develop from this type of work.  So, if we use the premise that First Responders are more psychologically healthy than their civilian counterpart, why are we seeing the psychological problems we are seeing within First Responders?   Problems like substance abuse, high divorce rates and suicide?  Theoretically, this should not be happening, but it is rampant. Why?

Mental health professionals are very familiar with issues such as depression and have many tools in their therapeutic toolbox to help. What they are not nearly as educated in understanding is the environment of the First Responder and the issue of burnout.  Research has shown that the leading cause of stress in First Responders is not the day to day rescues and arrests they perform.  Those chores are why the individual signed up to do the job and there is clear understanding of those tasks through the academies and ongoing training.  What is not spoken of is the organizational stress that is killing First Responders. Yes, it’s the slow, ongoing, and constant organizational stress that is doing more damage to our First Responders than any other factor within the job.  As a professor, I have chaired several dissertations that have shown this stress and the gradual breakdown of the individual does not depend on the age, sex or rank of the individual. It appears that the seven-year mark is where the stress can eventually become the most significant issue for the individual and coping breaks down.

Organizational stress is from the departments and the fall out from the public. It is the gradual wearing down of the individual in all the tasks that have to be done to cover one’s posterior through paperwork, to handle the misconceptions and accusations of the media and public and the management of troops when management classes and courses are not offered as a way to help the individual learn how to manage.  Moving up the ranks many times is based on how one does the First Responder job, not how one manages people. These are two different tasks and require a different set of people skills. Both the manager and those below are set up to fail in system that does not allow the training of management of personnel to be as important as the training to fire a weapon, put out a fire or rescue a trapped person. It is set up to fail. 

The Drug Addicted Cop...

Safe Call Now's Sean Riley

A dear friend of mine always says and he’s right, “We treat our cars better than we treat our first responders in addiction who are going to die”.   When the red light comes on in our vehicles we immediately take the vehicle into the mechanic and have it assessed, evaluated and fixed.  When we’re dealing with the alcoholic or addicted first responder, the red lights come on and as a profession we will enable them to protect our partners (blind loyalty), try to fix the problems ourselves (which only a professional can do) or cast them aside and throw them away as if it is someone else’s problem (the easy way out).  The diseases of addiction and mental health when combined are two of the deadliest diseases known to mankind, yet they are the only two diseases that we allow the first responder who’s brain is incapable of making logical decisions dictate the terms of treatment.  Maybe for fear of not offending them, ending their career, who knows there are many other reasons usually associated with “The Thin Blue, Red, Green Line”.  Ultimately I have determined that the main cause is that “It’s always been done this way in the past”.   

This is why Safe Call Now® exists, an organization that is willing to change the culture and thinking of an entire profession that experiences these diseases at twice the rate of the general population according to some studies and some say even higher.  Who knows?  I just know first responders are dying from it.

I want to educate you about the alcoholic and addict mind and what the first responder may be thinking and doing when they are in this situation.  I am familiar with this because I was “That guy”.  The guy who would lie to your face, smile, tell you everything is alright, convince you that everyone else is crazy, function within the work environment, control the situations, create drama within others to direct the attention away from me and convince you that I was right.  Fortunately or unfortunately I do not think like you.