Canadian Safety Reporter

JANUARY 2014 Cops try to takedown mental health Ombudsman makes 34 recommendations to Ontario Provincial Police Having a best friend die in a collision would be tough for anyone — even more tough if you are the police officer responding to the car crash, only to have your friend die in your arms. Staff Sgt. Brian Knowler lived through that traumatizing experience on a miserably rainy night in 2004. As a 15-year veteran of an Ontario police service, Knowler suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and an operational stress injury which he buried until finally hitting rock bottom and seeking help. The culture of policing has historically been to sweep mental health issues under the rug. But in recent decades, the spotlight has been focused on how operational stress injuries (OSIs) and mental health can affect the well-being of an individual. That concept was echoed by André Marin, Ontario's ombudsman, who conducted an audit of the Ontario Provincial Police's (OPP) mental health policies last year. The report, In the Line of Duty, made 34 recommendations to the provincial police force, including the need to confront persistent stigma against OSIs, increasing psychological services available to officers, and to develop comprehensive programs to handle those issues. Now, almost one year after the ombudsman's audit, the OPP has come back with a report on its progress. That includes making headway on the number of people accessing internal and external support provided by the OPP, consultations with other policing agencies and the introduction of a "lunch and learn" series, hosted by the OPP's operational stress injuries working group. Inspector Leslie Craig, team lead for the working group, said the agency has made significant strides when it comes to dealing with the mental health of its officers — but there is still a long way to go in terms of training and educating the force. "This isn't something that's going to be wrapped up in short order. This 2 Photo: Saul Porto (Reuters) | By Sabrina Nanji | Ontario Provincial Police officers guard the scene of a mass murder in Shedden, Ont., in this 2006 file photo. Eight men were found murdered in the rural Ontario town, one of the worst mass murders in Canada's recent history. is something that's going to take a long time. It's going to be constant, it's going to be ongoing," she said. Policing in particular poses unique risks. Kathy Jurgens, the national program director for the Canadian Mental Health Association's Mental Health Works program said police face dangerous scenarios most of us never see in our lifetime as part of their day-to-day jobs — which pose heightened risks. "Mental health has been one of the last frontiers for a stigmatized population. The stigma is a societal stigma that we need to bust and break down, and policing, the OPP, has a unique challenge because not only do we have preconceived ideas of people with mental health issues, we certainly have preconceived ideas of what a police officer should be too. They kind of collide," Jurgens said. "We have an assumption about police officers — that they're screened, that they're young, they're healthy, they're fit, they're invincible. And we tend to realize ongoing stress and strains can impact someone's health." Knowler agreed, saying emergency responders also have to deal with an attitude which perpetuates the notion that if you can't stand the heat, get out of Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2014 the kitchen. "(With) any paramilitary, firefighting, even paramedical thing, you're going to see horrible things. And part of the job is dealing with it. And if you can't deal with it and you have these strong psychological and emotional reactions to it, then you're not cut out for it," he said, adding that while that attitude may have been acceptable 20 or 40 years ago, officers are realizing they are mere mortals. "Officers coming in now are a lot more cognizant of the fact that you are only human," Knowler said. "These things do happen to you no matter of the fact that you wear armour and a gun belt and you have a dangerous job. If you don't recognize these things openly, then it can harm you as much as a physical injury can." And as physical injuries go, so goes psychological injuries. On a corporate level, police services need to really be supporting their officers in terms of needing accommodation just as they would a physical injury, Knowler said. "If you break your ankle or if you hurt your back while chasing someone on the job, it's easy to see," he explained. "When someone's got an OSI or Continued on page 6

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