NCJ Number
170684
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 64 Issue: 10 Dated: (October 1997) Pages: 63-64,66,68
Date Published
1997
Length
4 pages
Annotation
After reviewing the dynamics of the influence of a police officer's experience of trauma on the officer's family, this article provides guidelines for addressing family needs under the impact of police occupational stress.
Abstract
Police officers exposed to violence and other stressful occupational experiences inevitably carry their emotional effects into family interactions. The importance of assessing and treating the spouses/mates of trauma survivors has been successfully argued by many researchers. Additionally, the author has found no significant differences in levels of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, communication, and attitudes toward police issues and stress symptoms between police officers and their wives. The same argument has also been extended to the entire family of the officer. Critical Incident Stress Management focuses on a broad systemic approach to mitigating the potential harm caused by traumatic police occupational incidents. This means that chaplains, family counselors, school psychologists, and peer teams become involved in a multidisciplinary process of support for officers and their families impacted by severe stress. Early intervention and crisis-response programs can mitigate and sometimes prevent the emotional and relational damage to officers and their families occasioned by occupational stress. 9 notes