According to American Police Beat “somewhere between 2-6 times more officers kill themselves each year than are killed by the bad guys.” Thousands of officers are currently in crisis—experiencing trauma, family and financial distress, behavioral health challenges, substance abuse and other health issues. Employee wellness programs shouldn’t wait for crisis to occur, but should begin during the hiring process and continue through retirement.  Both preventative programs and crisis intervention should be utilized to influence the professional and personal lives of employees and their families. When organizations identify healthy applicants and partner with health professionals to maintain employee health, these organizations have the potential to improve morale and productivity while reducing complaints and liability.

Officer and Agency Wellness—Hiring and Retiring Healthy® will introduce attendees to the innovative Indianapolis employee wellness program that US Attorney General Loretta Lynch has called “the model for law enforcement wellness.”  Ground-breaking research and proven strategies to address officer distress from the Indianapolis Model© will be introduced in this course.  These strategies are intended to aid agencies in reversing the trends of organizational paralysis that result in a failure to intervene as employees face personal and career crisis.  Upon completion of this course, participants will have gained insight into strategies for designing an agency infrastructure that supports and maintains healthier employees.   

Course Objectives:

• Understand the importance of education and early intervention before officers are in crisis.
• Identify health and resiliency traits during the recruiting and probationary process while there is still time to address long-term risk.
• Understand how promoting employee wellness reduces distress (both on and off-duty) which results in reduced liability for the organization.
• Identify, recognize and assess indicators of crisis and how to use the Indianapolis Model© to effectively intervene.
• Understand how implementing  organizational strategies for developing and maintaining healthy employees benefits the officer, the organization, the union, the community and the officer’s family.
• Understand the importance of timelines, accountability and binding agreements in ensuring agency commitment and employee compliance.
• Address the myth of “retraining” as a cure-all for employee issues.
• Utilize financial literacy training and other retirement planning education at the start of officers’ careers.
• Recognize how emotional intelligence could positively impact officer behavior and interaction with the public.
• Utilize separation agreements and other non-adversarial methods when intervention strategies prove unsuccessful.