NCJ Number
197097
Date Published
2002
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This chapter is a transcript of an interview with a retired Lieutenant Colonel (Ed Cronin) with the Massachusetts State Police, who, in his earlier years with the department, received assistance from the department's stress unit in dealing with his alcohol abuse; the interview focuses on how the stress unit helped him deal with his addiction and preserve his career as a State trooper.
Abstract
When the alcohol abuse became debilitating, Ed, at the age of 36, went to a psychologist affiliated with the department, who recommended hospitalization. While in the hospital, he received a visit from a member of the department's stress unit. This person put Ed in touch with a person involved with Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) who had formerly been a State trooper. A member of the stress unit maintained contact with Ed in a peer counseling role that focused on Ed's progress in dealing with his alcohol addiction and also his obsession with women. In the interview documented in this chapter, Ed discusses the importance of the stress unit's maintaining confidentiality in the face of departmental efforts to make career assessments of stress unit clients. Ed's ability to remain with the department while being helped to deal with significant personal problems was credited to the stress unit's work with him and its persistent efforts to help him function constructively as a trooper while dealing with his problems. The effort was successful, since he achieved an influential supervisory position within which he had a distinctive perspective on the importance of the work of the stress unit.