Essay Sample on Police Officers' Mental Health: Accessing Support in Emergencies

Introduction

When an emergency occurs, police officers are among the first responders. They are actively involved in the rescue missions, and the experiences affect them psychologically. It is critical to ensure that law enforcers access mental health resources as well as psychological assistance. Some of the experiences are traumatizing since some are extreme to the extent that the officers have to deal with fatal injuries as well as deaths.

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Mental health resources can be made available to the officers by the use of law enforcement agency support (World Health Organization, 2017). The agencies should facilitate this by ensuring that the officers are prepared for an emergency. The officers can also easily access psychological help through field health staff, such as counselors. After every emergency mission, the officers should be attended to by specialists. If they are not extremely distressed, they should be encouraged to practice group interpersonal therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, as well as problem-solving approaches.

There are various types of communication and information management systems that can be used to help deal with the issue of offering psychological assistance to first responders. Technology has a role to play in helping the challenges that are faced while trying to solve the national crisis and help people with mental challenges (Creamer & Austin, 2017). The security personnel is the majority of the people with mental challenges because most of the time, they find themselves engaging radio communication systems can be used to help the police deal with mental issues where the system is designed to identify characteristics of people with mental challenges for them to receive medications.

The second communication and information system that can be applied in offering psychological assistance include the tactical communication system that uses the model of the change in behavior of a person (Creamer & Austin, 2017). When people are having mental challenges, their behavior changes; hence, it's easier to identify them based on the changes in behavior. The system is able to identify police officers with mental health problems. Once the officers are identified, then the treatment option can begin early enough before the mental challenge escalates.

In the application of the various strategies meant to help people living with mental challenges, the application plan needs to be followed strictly. However, different cases need to be handled differently because people have faced different kinds of trauma, and people respond differently (Creamer & Austin, 2017). The solution strategy needs to focus on including the cause of the mental health challenge as long as the solution to mental health challenges to ensure that the challenge does not re-occur again in the future. The care also needs to be provided by experts who have the knowledge and experience in handling different forms of mental illness.

Diagnosis is the first treatment option for mental illness because people cannot be treated for mental conditions that they do not know. The patients also need to accept that they need help for the treatment to be effective (Creamer & Austin, 2017). Different technologies can be adapted to facilitate the identification of mental health challenges. Continuity of care is also fundamental in terms of continuing to get support even after getting psychological help. The family members also need to be involved in the treatment plan because they are the ones to support their loved ones that have a mental illness.

In institutions that have a high number of employees facing mental illness challenge because of the nature of their work need to have a department that will deal with the mental challenge among the employees (Rapp, 2014). Having such departments would help the employees that would not have an opportunity to get help from experts where possible. The organization should be able to support its employees to make them have the capacity to do their work.

A performance management system contributes to the overall performance of the organization if it is implemented well. A good performance management system is one that helps in improving the motivation and engagement of the employees. It facilitates understanding their objectives, their responsibility as well as fostering the relationship with the manager.

To effectively implement a performance management system, it is critical to do a proper research. Buying a performance management system is not enough, but it is important to do thorough research before presenting a performance management system to the top management. The software should not have many features, and it should be easy to understand, use, and secure. Choosing a system that suits these factors makes it easy for the top managers to approve it. After getting the system, it is important to integrate Human resource data and payroll data. Training the employees is the next step after which the pilot test is carried. Before rolling out the system to be used in the entire organization, it is critical to test it using a few departments. The pilot test tells you whether the system is working, after which you can make it accessible to employees in all the departments.

As a manager, sometimes, you will have employees who would want to air complaints and grievances (Sullivan, 2015). To ensure that you handle complaints effectively as a manager, you should set up a system where employees can easily and effectively lodge complaints and grievances. Ensure that there is a department that can effectively receive and handle complaints. Normally such responsibility lies to the Human resources Department. Discretion is important as employees can only submit their complaints if they are assured that they will be listened to.

Sometimes employees may be uncomfortable to present their grievances to a particular person. As a manager, I can, therefore, allow complaints to be communicated by establishing a central box where employees can drop their complaints (Sullivan, 2015). Employees may find it easier to present the complaints in a box rather than to a person because, in this approach, they can remain anonymous. They can, therefore, avoid consequences that may arise as a result of the complaints or grievances.

A manager should also categorize complaints into classifications such as management policies that are unreasonable, working conditions as well as violations of rules and policies (Sullivan, 2015). Upon receiving a complaint, a manager should acknowledge receipt, investigate the grievance or complaint, decide, and act. After acting, it is important to review the outcomes and establish whether the solution solved what the complaint or grievance was lodged to solve.

Storing information in an organized manner is very important in ensuring that all complaints and challenges that might be affecting them (Rapp, 2014). The cases that are more severe and need urgent attention need to be supported first to ensure the people suffering get help. The complaints vary, therefore organizing the information also entails organizing the victims in a manner that they will get the right kind of help. The organization should ensure that all the cases are handled completely.

References

Creamer, A. M., & Austin, W. (2017). Canadian Nurse Practitioner Core Competencies Identified: An Opportunity to Build Mental Health and Illness Skills and Knowledge. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 13(5), e231-e236.

Rapp, C. A. (2014). The strengths model: Case management with people suffering from severe and persistent mental illness. New York: Oxford University Press.

Sullivan, M. (2015). How to Handle Employee Complaints and Grievances | QuickBooks. Retrieved 28 November 2019, from https://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/management-and-training/how-to-handle-employee-complaints-and-grievances/

World Health Organization. (2017). Depression: Let's talk. Retrieved 27 November 2019, from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-in-emergencies