ISSUES AND PRACTICES.pdf - The Counseling Team International

Demonstrated concern for employeesBy providing stress services, administrators have an opportunity to demonstrate that they careabout their staff as human beings, not just as employees.With the Stress Program, things that were never addressed before get attended to: If there is anaccident or an assault and an officer is hospitalized, Dick [Gould, a staff member] is there. Hemakes sure they are cared for and talks to the officer's wife. A paramilitary organization can getimpersonal, so the program gives credence to the fact that the DOC cares about its employees.--Dennis Cullen, deputy director for labor relations, Massachusetts Department of CorrectionIf we expect staff to work in these conditions and we recognize the effects of the workingenvironment on them, we owe it to them to provide resources to cope with the stresses of thissetting.--A.T. Wall, director, Rhode Island Department of CorrectionsStress Programs Have Drawbacks--But They Are Relatively MinorMultnomah County Sheriff Dan Noellea strong supporter of his department's stress program--says, "I am strapped for money, and the program does cost money [more than $87,000 a year]. Italso takes officers away from the job to be trained and retrained." Although a strong believer inher department's program, too, Kathleen Walliker, records administrator for the MultnomahCounty Jail, says:It takes time to address these [stress-related] issues, so it takes peer supporters away from theirassigned duties. We end up having to cover for two people (the troubled employee and the peer).It's a nuisance for me to let two people off for an hour to talk. And then coworkers can be jealousabout it. Coworkers may have to cover the troubled person's or peer's phone while they talk.A debriefer with the New York State Department of Correctional Services Post-Incident StressDebriefing Program felt some officers used the debriefing sessions after a major riot to get out ofwork. Bruce Baker, assistant commissioner, confirms that the only drawback to the program is"officers who are only slightly involved and unaffected see it as a day at the beach." However,Noelle, Walliker, and Baker all report the benefits of their stress programs unquestionablyoutweigh their drawbacks.Notes1. The National Institute of Justice has published a companion report for law enforcementofficers, Developing a Law Enforcement Stress Program for Officers and Their Families,available free of charge from the National Criminal Justice Reference Service at (800) 851-3240and www.ncjrs.org. Finn, Peter, and Julie Esselman Tomz, Developing a Law EnforcementProgram for Officers and Their Families, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice,National Institute of Justice, 1996, NCJ 163175.