Essay Example on Law Enforcement Officers: Unique Psychological Challenges

Introduction

Admittedly, every occupation has various forms of work-related stressors that require individual as well as corporate interventions to overcome. Nonetheless, law enforcement, as an occupation, uniquely presents psychological challenges to the officers. Being a law enforcement officer means that one is always ready to respond to some of the stressful and potentially traumatic situations. The problem here is that the requirements of service do not give a law enforcement officer time to figure out how to handle a situation. Yet, they experience such traumatizing situations just raw as they are in the field. An average law enforcement personnel encounters a lot of such traumatizing situations in the course of service. Based on this factual background, police officers must be at high risk of developing job-related stress, trauma, and burnout, which then undermine the quality of their lives. In extreme conditions, this distress may result in suicidal acts, drug abuse, uncontrollable aggression, or gross misconduct. While it is necessary to integrate mental training into the mainstream police preparedness, each law enforcement officer needs to develop a self-resiliency plan for overcoming the unique stressors attributable to the rigor and traumatic nature of their work.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Self-Care/Resilience Activities for a Career In Law Enforcement

The self-care for law enforcement officer involves two critical phases. Improving personal resilience necessitates the nurturing of intrapersonal qualities. The vital intrapersonal attributes include self-drive, job satisfaction, compassion, and intellectual humility as a first step. (Satapathy, 2016). The second aspect concerns building interpersonal attributes, development of mutual understanding, and sustainable relationships with peers in service as well as the broader social context such as the family (Pietrantoni & Prati, 2008). Attaining these interpersonal competencies would necessitate sheer teamwork, getting involved in social support networks, and embracing familial ties and relations.

One important self-help strategy is to join and remain part of supportive communities both at work and away from duty. Understandably, law enforcement has limited time for interactions, sharing emotions, and just deflating depressive memories. Nonetheless, a personal commitment to always spare some time for connecting with members of the team result in relief from stress. Being part of a team not only improves intrapersonal skills but also inculcates the sense of belonging, satisfaction, and reduces potential burnouts (Pietrantoni & Prati, 2008). Since police service is a collective profession where officers are required to always work in various teams, developing a community of co-workers would result in a sense of collective efficacy, which built onto one's compassion and satisfaction. In such small communities, it is possible to unconsciously conduct distress debriefing while at the same time, becoming compassionate about the situations of others. Peer-to-peer interactions in such teams slowly make one develop a feeling of worthiness as well as become socially attached to people who undergo the same stressors as themselves (Pietrantoni & Prati, 2008). Ideally, talking out one's distressing experiences is a first strategy in dissipating stress. Groups and team involvement would foster a buddy system, which helps to overcome the feeling of solitude and struggles with caging emotions.

Embracing close family members such as children and spouses is another critical intervention for deflating stress associated with police work. The family provides the last line of mental stability by not only comforting but also reassuring of their unconditional love and affection (Satapathy, 2016). Escalation of distress is associated with psychological disturbance attributable to unstable families, and inadequate social support from close kin. Active recognition that the spouse and children are a source of social support reduces the stress burden, thus preventing it from escalation to harmful levels (Pietrantoni & Prati, 2008). It is also necessary to explain the nature of work and lived career experiences to the family members so that they can always focus on offering a home environment that elicits the relaxation response. Through explaining oneself to the family members, a police officer not only wins their social support but also nurtures the sense of self-acceptance. Through this self-acceptance, it is easy to embrace all possible avenues of help and prevents the tendency for self-denial, which is counterproductive in maintaining emotional stability.

Consistently listening to a balance of both stories of loss and success is another self hep mechanism that would not only help in developing a comprehensive understanding of emotional extremes but also fosters a sense of realism. The fact that psychological distress is intangible means that there is always a likelihood of disregarding signs as well as sheer denial of the problem. Listening to stories of loss and grief makes it easy to open up and tell the traumatizing story. It is an effective cognitive intervention that helps in fining meaning of life even in the most emotionally draining contexts (Satapathy, 2016). Loss and grief do not necessarily trigger or reinforce negative thoughts, but instead, they help in untangling and liberating even the most overwhelming grief. On the other hand, success stories give a sense of achievement out of every situation. A proper balance of success and loss stories helps in reconstructing the traumatic situation by finding a neutral point necessary for the attainment of flexibility. Through flexibility, emotions become malleable as well as easily adjustable even from the extreme situation of trauma (Pietrantoni & Prati, 2008). Besides, such stories restore a sense of optimism. Optimism, in this sense, is the unconscious arousal of hopefulness and confidence that the future is going to be better even if it seems grim in the present. It is undeniable that every day at work in law enforcement would present fresh, emotionally sensitive circumstances. Therefore, optimism triggers the self-drive for continuing serving even in the riskiest situations.

Establishing a religious support system is another integral way of developing resilience to distress associated with law enforcement responsibilities. The underlying idea for embracing religiousness is that it nourishes the sense of spirituality that connects one to hope, and faith (Satapathy, 2016). Religiousness and spirituality reinforce to provide the sublime feeling that everything would be well. Though it may undermine the need to open up and talk about the individual challenges, reasonable religiousness rehabilitates emotional instability and nu in an individual an undying hope.

Proactive learning, reading ], and information gathering about various risk situations with the profession is an essential step in attenuating the severity of possible distress. While it is understandable that some deployment situations are often so abrupt and disruptive, reading about various scenarios beforehand would give an average impression of what to expect at the scene (Satapathy, 2016). One of the issues that often cause devastating experience in first-time response is the lack of information about exactly what may come in the course of a deployment. Law enforcement situations by their nature are diverse. They may sometimes involve scenes of dead people, violent shoot outs, accident victims who are severely wounded, or eve recovery mission from dangerous locations (Pietrantoni & Prati, 2008). All these situations present their unique challenges to responders, trying to understand the case at the very time of response may be confusing. It may result in developing a sense of self inadequacy or self-blame for not having done things the right way. Through the continuous acquisition of information on the nature of diverse security situations, one develops a higher ability to absorb stress. Having adequate information helps in the identification of resources that can be used to either avoid the trigger of distress or adapt to it. In studying possible distressing experiences, the focus would be on being attentive to potential risk factors, the degree of exposure, possible effects, and available post-exposure services.

At any one time, setting goals and avoiding thinking traps will critically improve emotional stability. While missions and any law enforcement situation had preset group objectives, it is essential also to have an individual goal, which serves as a source of self-drive (Satapathy, 2016). Having a personal goal outside what has been prescribed the specific mission or general work helps in maintaining emotional balance and being self-satisfied. Through the goals, it becomes impossible for the work experience to take over one's life. Also, actively avoiding thinking traps opens up the perception of good in every situation (Satapathy, 2016). Focusing only on extreme impossibilities increases the vulnerability to shutdowns in one's mental system.

The physical self-care dimension comprises four primary elements, including having adequate sleep, feeding on a healthy diet, routine physical exercise, and creating family time. The role of sleep in physical and emotional wellbeing is critical. Psychological studies indicate that sleep deprivation undermines the soundness of emotional control, behavior, and ability to cope with change (Pietrantoni & Prati, 2008). During sleep, the brain which stores all the distressing memories rests and filters them out, thus reducing the possibility of becoming entrapped in an emotional rush that may escalate to severe depression if referenced over a long exposure. A well-balanced diet also helps in the replenishment of distress tolerance. The American journal of psychiatry alludes to the fact that eating a balanced diet and routine physical activity acts have a neurochemical effect through lowering the levels of hormones associated with stress such as adrenaline and cortisol. On the other hand, having adequate time with the family results in a calming effect, which, when complemented with indulgence in enjoyment activities such as listening to music, dance, or other personal hobbies, provides a great mental balance (Satapathy, 2016).

Conclusion

Development and improvement of self-resilience among first responders, such as law enforcement officers, is a vital approach towards reducing the chances of severe mental problems such as depression. The resilience improvement plan encompasses all the activities intended to foster behavior change, align thoughts, and focus on actions that fundamentally promote wellbeing. Law enforcement presents unique challenges for mental stability due to the high exposure to stressful and traumatic exposure.

References

Grafton, E., Gillespie, B., & Henderson, S. (2010, November). Resilience: the power within. In Oncology nursing forum (Vol. 37, No. 6, p. 698).

Satapathy, S. (2016). Promoting psychosocial health of disaster first responders. Military Psychology: Concepts trends and interventions, 249-266. https://books.google.dk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=uYSTCwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA249&dq=self care+or+resilience+activities+for+first+responders&ots=xgO3_...