Axon puts family at the heart of its mental health campaign

Sponsored by Axon

By Margarita Birnbaum for Police1 BrandFocus

Just after Christmas 2014, Jennifer Brown was hired to edit footage of the fatal shooting of a police officer investigating a domestic violence incident. Brown had to review the body camera video to edit the images that could not be released, including the patrol officer’s final moments. The memories of that experience still bring her to tears.

Axon launched its Axon Aid: Wellness program, a collection of peer videos and other resources to help public servants and their families deal with the realities of work and provide tools for better mental health. (Getty)

But Brown, the communications and systems information manager for the Flagstaff Police Department in Arizona, says she shared those memories in a mental health campaign designed to help encourage people who work in law enforcement, including other records stewards People seek counseling services when they feel their work is overwhelming.

“There has to be someone to always remind employees and their families that there is help, that we are going through some kind of pain,” she said. “It allows us to be our best selves.”

These are some of the core messages of Axon Aid: Wellness, the campaign of Axon Aid, Axon’s philanthropic division. The program offers videos and other resources where law enforcement officers share their stories in hopes of sparking important conversations in police families across the country.

For the project, Axon Aid’s production team interviewed hundreds of people in the law enforcement community, including public safety workers and their families, says Isabella Giannini, Axon’s senior manager of customer loyalty. They also spoke to psychologists who are familiar with the responsibilities and challenges that characterize the work of patrol officers, detectives, and other sworn and civilian employees.

SOOTHING MENTAL HEALTH TRENDS

Law enforcement officials are aware of the worrying trends of poor mental health among their sworn and civilian employees. Academic research in the US and other countries has been pointing to this for at least 10 years.

For example, results from a study of U.S. police officers suggest they are almost twice as likely to be living with depression compared to their peers in the general population, in part because many do not get enough sleep, are regularly exposed to violence, and are dealing with unique organizational issues stressors. The results of a recent study looking at the prevalence of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety at a law enforcement agency in Canada suggest that 26% of the civilian and sworn officers who participated were diagnosed with a mental illness.

And that was before the coronavirus pandemic turned the world upside down. Shortly after the US shelter-in-place orders began, public safety agencies inundated Axon Aid with requests to provide mental health resources in addition to the masks, gloves, and other personal protective equipment they provided to officials and civilian employees to keep safe from the coronavirus, says Giannini.

ACCEPT A CALL

Within months, she and her colleagues began laying the groundwork for Axon Aid: Wellness by educating officials in agencies large and small, rural and city, about their work and their attitudes toward mental health screening and treatment.

They also spoke with immediate family members of law enforcement officials to learn how their loved ones’ work can affect their personal relationships. In addition, they consulted with law enforcement psychologists and other experts who could provide practical, time-tested advice to help public safety personnel manage stress, maintain a better work-home balance, and foster meaningful relationships with family and friends.

“It’s really opened our eyes to a lot of the struggles that the police face that are internalized and taken home and what that does to their families,” Giannini said. “I think people, including family members, forget that while they are answering a call to service, they are people with different stress management skills and different personal backgrounds.”

UNDERSTAND PROBLEMS

Understanding the challenges and motivations of LEOs and their families was a key goal in building the program. For example, some law enforcement officials said that even though they knew they needed counseling, they did not ask for it because they feared it would negatively impact their careers. Among police officers, those who appeared to have more severe symptoms of mental illness were the most resilient to seeking help.

Many public safety workers also shared that part of the stress they felt was because they felt misunderstood by loved ones, especially those who didn’t work in the same field. Meanwhile, relatives said, among other things, that their relatives were withdrawn, irritable and unnecessarily vigilant.

Giannini says that she and the other project participants realized that they needed to create a program to address mental health, and that these peer stories could be powerful tools. The hope is that law enforcement officials and their families can benefit in a number of ways by listening to the experiences of their law enforcement colleagues, as well as expert advice, including

  • Develop a better understanding of their needs and expectations.
  • Facilitate communication.
  • Learn to navigate through rough spots more effectively.

FAMILIES NEED SUPPORT, TOO

Because family members play a crucial role in supporting their loved ones through good times and bad, Giannini says it’s important that law enforcement promote counseling and provide mental health education resources to their employees’ spouses, children, parents, and even siblings. Although highly motivated to help loved ones, many do not have the resources to provide the most effective support.

Brown, Flagstaff’s systems information manager, agrees, saying that while family members play a large role in assisting law enforcement personnel, there is often a disconnect between public safety professionals and their families, generally due to misunderstanding and a lack of open communication.

A family member may try to find ways to connect and help their loved one, but it can often be too much for that person. This is especially true if the person in law enforcement chooses not to share details of the job or says they are “okay.”

“This often creates a sense of disconnection on both sides, and a lack of communication about what’s going on in the law enforcement family member’s world,” Brown said.

Certainly, she says, law enforcement officials — from ordinary officers to records keepers to commanding officers — could better nurture their relationships at home. Many, she explains, don’t share much about their work because they want to protect loved ones from the ugliness they see, the frustration the job brings, and the sadness they feel.

“They chose not to put that burden on the family,” Brown said, “but eventually it becomes a burden on everyone involved and too much to hold.”

Axon Aid: Wellness aims to bridge this communication gap between law enforcement personnel and their families by sharing these stories with their peers. Brown says she hopes others will find comfort in knowing they’re not the only ones struggling with mental illness and be inspired to seek help. In addition, she wants agencies to take the lead in supporting their employees’ families.

“It’s about understanding the culture and mindset of law enforcement and being willing to change it,” she said.

For more information, see Axon Aid: Wellness. If you need help now, please call Suicide Prevention at 800-273-8255.

Continue reading: A challenging but necessary conversation is made easier with virtual reality training

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