Special class helps police officers tackle stress, mental health challenges
DORAL - Mental health issues have become a growing concern for law enforcement and now CBS News Miami is taking you exclusively inside a special class for police officers nationwide that is being held at South Florida PBA headquarters.
CBS News Miami's Peter D'Oench was allowed access inside the class where two dozen officers from Miami-Dade and around the country had gathered.
"It's so important because they say to police well you have to be well yourself," said South Miami Police Chief Rene Landa, who launched the program in September of 2021 when he was President of the Miami-Dade Association of Chiefs of Police.
That program is called "Struggle Well" and is held in partnership with Boulder Crest and helps officers navigate through issues like PTSD.
The classes are held once a month for 5 days and are available for free to 37 departments across Miami-Dade and Landa said the program has been expanded to 18 other states. The classes accommodate as many as 30 officers and are usually full.
Landa said, "If you work in this field you know that officers don't release. They don't talk. They keep everything inside and each and every one of us in this life will struggle. Everybody in this life struggles in this life no matter who you are. On top of that, the officer puts on a uniform and puts on that badge and he also has to carry struggles in his personal life but then he takes on the struggles of someone else when he is going to a murder, a homicide death or domestic violence. Officers' welfare is so important."
Many police officers and other people are still perplexed and troubled after Miami-Dade Police Director Freddy Ramirez reportedly tried to take his own life by shooting himself in the head.
South Florida PBA President Steadman Stahl said, "We identified this a long time ago. We noticed before COVID the number one threat to law enforcement was ourselves and self-inflicted gunshot wounds to ourselves ad stuff like that. There was a lot of anti-police sentiment out there and anti-policing and defunding.
"It got to be a lot of stress on officers. Nobody is immune from the stress of life. Life is tough enough but add to that the stresses of the job and we have to make split-second decisions, good bad or indifferent you have to carry that with you."
Among those attending the class was Krista Dimock, a Patrol Sgt. From the Littleton, Colorado Police Department which also provides peer support to fellow officers and who has been in law enforcement for 10 years.
She said, "Everyone goes through struggles. Every single person whether an officer or a person on the street goes through struggles. For us and peer support, it is so important to send our officers home as good as they came in so they can continue to do their jobs and live the best lives that they can."
In a 2020 study, the Journal of American Medicine said 26 percent of officers studied showed symptoms of mental health challenges, like anxiety, depression, PTSD and suicide ideation. The Journal reported that less than 20 percent of those officers sought professional treatment.
