The posts you will discover at Sawayer Logistics PLLC (sawayer.com), addressing First Responder and Trauma Recovery will provide resources for the various professions exposed to trauma at different levels.
Trauma is a concept that is fairly new, having evolved in the last 20 years and brought to the fore due to the diagnostic label of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) of soldiers returning from theaters of war overseas.
As a result, the more general term of trauma has evolved for a more generic application.
According to the American Psychological Association, trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event. Trauma can occur once, or on multiple occasions and an individual can experience more than one type of trauma.
Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD), is the mental health disorder that is associated when someone experiences or witnesses a trauma.
Further, traumas’ impact the relationships of those very same first responders that it originally traumatized.
These first responder groups addressed here will include, but are not limited to: corrections personnel, law enforcement personnel, emergency dispatchers, active military, Veterans, physicians, nurses, EMT personnel, fire fighters, morticians, medical examiners, social workers, counselors, those serving congregations of different faiths, and Hospice staff to mention just a few.
We will explore some situations that create post traumatic stress syndrome, as well as outline the symptoms experienced and the criteria for meeting a formal diagnosis.
Additionally, we will also provide useful resources and links in the process.
We welcome feedback and suggestions for adding additional professional groups that are trauma exposed.
As Covid 19 and all its’ variants has now managed to threaten us all and has killed over 800,000 individual prescious lives, we are facing the ultimate existential battle.
As a result we are left feeling anxious, depressed, angry and economically stressed out as a result!
We are fighting a biological battle that, with little warning, quickly rose to pandemic status world wide.
As a result, we are confronted with psychological, spiritual and emotional fallout challenging our faith that “the good life” is still possible.
The challenge Covid presents to our lives demands an Existential Response to our most unquestioned beliefs and values about life.
Existential beliefs or values are those values and beliefs that we don’t think about very much or very often, but which provide us with the road maps of how we cope with threats to our lives now, until we can get to back the land of meaningful living.
These Existential beliefs and values deal with the life events that every man and women must answer as a result of being human, for example, such things as birth, time, space, death, consiousness and the ultimate meaning of life.
Awareness of these various existential events and the beliefs we have regarding them, gives us the tools to develop courage to grow even in the midst of the vulnerabilities and anxieties that come from just being alive.
Covid 19 and its ever morphing variants are such a place of vulnerability.
What are the Existential challenges Covid 19 presents to us?
The challenges from Covid include:
the challenge to develop the capacity for self-awareness, alloeing is to experience the necessary tensions between freedom and responsibility
the challenge of creating a personal identity and establishing meaningful relationships with others
the challenge of searching for and creating the meaning, purpose and values of a life we did not choose.
the challenge of accepting anxiety as a condition of being alive.
the challenge to become aware of death and non-being at all times.
Being Safe Means Being Smart and Being Ready
So what are the Existential Tasks we have before us?
The existential tasks that we all have before us are based on the five existential life tasks as follows:
I will develop the capacity for self-awareness, experiencing tension between freedom and responsibility.
Having personal freedoms means that I am responsible for choosing to cope with the things that fill me with anxiety and which overwhelms me.
That freedom also means that I am responsible for maintaining my connection to the world as a unique human being, whose job it is to make sense of the sensless things we experience.
Covid makes me chose to use my personal freedom to make decisions about self-quarantine, wearing a mask, practicing social distancing, and being mindful of and caring for those around me.
I commit to social distancing, personal sanitation and mask wearing when appropriate and necessary.
I choose to search for the meaning, purpose and values of a life confronted with Covid
Covid has forced us to experience a loss of the familiar and the predictable routines that we have engaged in automatically without questioning their value.
The reality of Covid provides me with an opporutnity to question and replace old ineffective routines and beliefs with new routines that contribute to my own safety and to the safety of those around me.
This act of questioning these routines may lead to me to modify or eliminate the old familiar and comfortable ways of responding to crisis. I will commit to seeing this as an opportunity for change and welcome that change as being necessary for my growth growth as a responsible and free human.
I will create an identity and establish meaningful relationships.
The loss of control I experience from Covid threatens my very identity and the existence of those I care about. I am frightened and angry at this loss of control.
My anger and my fears are evidence that I am still alive and that I have not given up my identityor accepted defeat at the hands of the Covid bully!
I accept anxiety as a condition of living.
I acknowledge that my experience of anxiety means that Covid and all of the changes that it has brought makes me anxious.
Anxiety makes me feel confused and robbed of my safe zone. I recognize that to be born is to be anxious and that to live, is to be constantly faced with anxiety.
I acknowledge that anxiety began with the first breath I had as a new life, outside the comfort zone of the womb when someone slapped my bottom and recognize that without the constant slaps of life there would only be the absence if human creativity and personal meaninglessness
I acknowledg the reality of death and non-being and face that reality every second by waking second.
Awareness of Death means that I recognize that Covid 19 is just one way of dying which I must acknowledge as a real possibility.
I have always know, in a remote sense, that death was inevitable. Covid unapolagetically brings the reality of death front and center to my life.
I simply acknowledge that although death is all of our personal fates, I will live life fully, until Covid or something else eventually takes my life.
There are several more additional stresses that have resulted from the Pandemic.
The Major Stressors from Covid 19
These stresses include distortions in time perception, limited movement and access to services, changes in mental, physical and spiritual energy,financial uncertainty, feelings of hopelessness about the future, spiritual doubts, social isolation and the lack of physical contact.
Let me discuss how we can face these issues with an existential perspective about them.
Time Distortions that are a result of changed personal schedules, family schedules, sleep patterns are a challenge to reorient myself in time.
I make the existential decision to establish a new schedule.I commit to being a structured person, who does not waste the gift of life’s limited time.
Covid means restrained movement and confinement that makes me feel robbed of my freedom.
The existential choice I make is that I will commit to challenging my natural beliefs about forced limits and confinement. I turn this situation around and make the confinement and limits of movements from Covid MY CHOICE.
Energy depletion means that Covid depletes me mentally with worry, physically with the inability to exercise, and spiritually by isolating me from my faith support groups.
In response I make the existential decision that I will dedicate myself to building alternative, new practices that give me physical, mental and spiritual energy.
Financial uncertainty means that Covid has magnified the thoughts around not having enough money to provide for myself and my family. I fear death, hunger, loss of my home, and loss of my job and becoming unsafe in the world.
I existentially commit to making a thorough and detailed assessment of my income, debts and spending habits. I unashamedly reach out to others and share my worry about finances and possible joblessness.
I listen intently as others share their own financial fears. I see no shame in asking for help. I have made the choice to survive and after I survive, I will pay my gains from survival forward when the opportunity comes.
Covid has led to massive feeling of hopelessness and a lack of vision for a safe future. Covid has caused me to lose hope in tomorrow. I recognize that a virus is not an intentional being that personally chooses only me to destroy.
I understand that unlike the inhuman Covid virus, I am an intentional being and that hopefulness is a choice that is up to me, independent of my circumstance. I am obligated to live fully in any circumstance.
Spirituality in doubt as I hear no answers to my prayers makes me question the love and concern of God. I am existentially free to ask questions and demand answers, knowing that God answers prayers in his own time and in his own way.
I am free to question why my God or my Higher Power would guide my life during this pandemic.
I accept that one of the consequences of questioning my faith includes the decision to be more faithful or walking away from my faith. My existential choice to walk away is made with the understanding that I am free to re-engage my faith at any time.
Covid has introduced confusion and a lack of trust in social structures including government, healthcare, policing, and financial institutions.
The apparent fragility of our system of education and mass communications is overwhelming. However I make the existential decision to understand that I am not alone in my confusion. I commit to finding inner peace in the midst of the confusion and lack of trust I may experience in governmental authority.
Finally, the lack of dependable, safe physical touch and the social isolation means I feel that Covid has forced a separation between myself and those people and pets that I love being in contact with.
I see others suffering from lack of physical contact and love and as a result I freely acknowledge that suffering is part of what all humans are confronted with.
I commit to using all other means to re-experience, through memory, those indestructible feelings. I existentially commit to writing letters, video chat, listening to songs and music that were shared together, enjoying favorite meals that were prepared together.
I hope that you now understand what existential powers you have with regard to your free will and the god-like powers you possess to survive the challenge of Covid and all future variants.
This is the second installment on “How Covid Has Changed Us.” In Part One of this series, I discussed what our core needs are and how they have been altered by the pandemic and how we can re-think our core beliefs
Part 2 is a step by step chronology that shows how our exposure to Covid was not instantaneous and because of the slow developments of the virus, no unilateral effective planning was done between infected countries or within the USA.
At First We Just Keep Moving Along
In February of 2020, Covid was just a news item about a new form of influenza. We are used to dealing with influenza and controlling it without much difficulty for many years.
The Covid 19 virus emerged in Woohan, China and killed large numbers of Chinese people.
Influenza is nothing new. We have known about various strains of influenza in the USA for many years. We have been well educated about mutations of the viruses over time. Each mutation would lead to a new vaccine.
Influenza strains historically, have resulted in death for certain vulterable groups every year. It turns out that this was not your Mommas influenza.
As the months went on, the rates of transmission outside of China promted the World Health Organization to sound the alarms. Still, word “Pandemic” was held at bay, for now.
Our inconsistent information from local governments, the news, social media, and conversations with friends or our doctors concealed the truth that a world wide pandemic was in the making.
The Uninvited Guest
American ports on the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts, unregulated by governmental actions at first, were the first to unknowingly “welcome” the virus to our shores.
News stories about cruise liners held off in international waters, loaded with infected passengers dying on board became daily fare.
An American Aircraft carrier likewise made the news when the government relieved the Captain of his post after he become a whistle blower about the active Covid cases on his ship.
The virus was now here in America and not somewhere out there. As Americans we are use to winning battles on all sorts of challenging fronts. Why would this enemy be any different? Our personal daily routines remained unchanged foe many months.
Military resources were activated, from the Corps of Engineers, to the US Navy’s medical ships, to the various National Guards to assist the states in their efforts to control the disease.
The drumbeat became constant as we heard about the scarcity of personal protective equipment (PPE’s) Early on, those were just needed primarily for the first responders and hospital staffs treating infected patients.
Death rates began to increase for patients and for medical staffs.
Inconsistent Messaging from the Media and from Governments
We listened to the news about how the first newly named virus, Covid 19, killed quickly.
Then it was found to be difficult to control because of the incubation period that allowed it to remain stealth for an average of 14 days.
In the meantime, we continued to make close contact with each other and share the same air without the use of masks. We were learning about this trickster disease the hard way.
The words super-spreaders and a-symptomatic now became part of our everyday speech, and the word “Pandemic” was now understood in many languages worldwide.
By this time, national and state governments understood that they had a responsiblity to assess what was happening, notify their citizens, and develop a game plan.
In the absense of consistent messaging from the nations capital, the leaders in the State of New York became the voice of leadership, with their daily news briefings on the pandemic.
New York State formed coalitions with other neighboring states to contain the virus and share resoures.
Developing a game plan for an unfamiliar foe
The Ebola and AIDS epidemics were examined by epidemiological experts for any hints of how the lessons leaned from the successful conquering of those diseases could give us a battle plan for Covid.
For too long, the mistake of looking at the Covid virus as just another variation of the yearly flu “virus”, kept the alarm from sounding. This was not your regular gorilla, this was Godzilla!
Emergency rooms and ICU’s all over the globe filled rapidly. Medical interventions required speical techniques, equipment and interventions tall suddenly in short supply.
This virus was effectively and parasitically sucking away the capacities of our internal organs to process oxygen. We were dying now because we couldn’t breath. This mechanism of death brought by Covid was initially thought to be a more intense type of upper resperatory illness.
That perception would prove to be false. The virus was killing in ways that we did not understand from past pandemics. All of our decades of epidemiological research seemed useless. What was this thing?
And Then There Was The George Floyd Death
A perfect storm was forming, which in an ironic way, was fueled by the tradgic death of George Floyd. The irony of his last words as he pleaded for his life were, “I can’t breath”. Dying by suffocation was the birthplace for massive anxiety worldwide.
Now there are lots of crummy ways to die, and some are crummier than others. Suffocation of one man being choked to death by the knee of another man who represented governmental authority, was something we were forced to witness nightly for months.
When George Floyd was suffocated, we all experienced a hightened degree of personal truama, by repeatedly hearing about his slow merciless death. We identified so closely with this death cry of, “I can’t breath”, that massive protests blew up overnight, all over the world, demanding social justice for the oppressed.
In the meantime, as States and Cities tried to cope with the violent protests, Covid 19 grew exponetially. Protesters could be seen in mass gatherings, without social distancing and without masks. This was not isolated to America, but rather was a worldwide occurance.
Emotions ran high, and no one seemed to care or to understand how this group behavior would accelerated the spread of the disease and helped to overwhelmed an already stressed healthcare system.
Initially, governments’ only meaningful way to control the disease without a vaccine, was to enforce social distancing by shutting down those parts of economies where people gathered in large numbers.
Only later were personal protective items, such as wearing masks, “suggested” as a helpful way to prevent the spread of the virus. The mantra was, do what your local leaders are advising. It was also, stay in your own back yard, because our gates are locked!
The last virus experienced in America was the flu pandemic of 1918. Very few living Americans remained from that experience who could identify with the massive impact from such a devastating public health event.
The only information which local governmental leaders had about the 1918 pandemic was in the history books.
We were without a reliable game plan for an enemy we could not identify. Battles fought with enemies who don’t wear recognized uniforms have always put our miltiary forces at a tactical disadvantage. Now our medical first responders were experiencing the same tactical disadvantage.
Without an enemy to easily identify and vanquish, conspiracy theories, fake news items, and nefarious political party motivations, were credited as being responsible for letting the virus push us around and thereby allowed the mistrusted government to take away our personal freedoms of choice.
Yes, fear led to irrationallity, and confusion, and then paranoia.
How Presidential and Congressional Political Races Made It Worse
Then, the perfect storm had new winds flowing into it from the political season.
The American Presidential Elections seemed to complicate the ability or the willingness of politicians on the state level and nationally to take the lead in forming coherent, consistent, national leadership to fight the virus. This gave the virus another advantage….time!
Other winds developed to help the perfect storm grow in it’s intensity in many other countries.
The vast economic losses that the virus was causing as a result of forces social isolation meant business closure and unemployment.
National leaders were watching helplessly as their economies tanked. Unemployment and poverty increased by multiples, almost overnigt. Panic and anger was setting in.
The protests in the midsts of the pandemic continued and had turned into riots in some places. Polarizations increased politically, socially, culturally, sexually and educationally.
The political grandstanding in the midst of the pandemic continued by all political factions.
Testing, Social Distancing, Sanitizing and Masks
Mask wearing and social distancing were not mandated and large social gatherings of individuals who were not adhering to medical guidelines continued.
Once effective testing and effective vaccines were available the die of mistrust of the government and authority had become permanent.
Humans are social animals. Social isolation is known to cause many psychological problems ranging from anxiety to depression to suicide. Restricted movement, contsant testing of temperatures, constant wearing of masks, constant hand washing and the use of sanitizer, along with the constant social distancing are not easliy endured psychologically.
People find themselves crying out for the old normal, for the good old days, for predictability, for freedom, for hope, for peaceful thoughts, for touch, for hugs, and yes, for jobs.
Now enter the variants of Delta and Omicron and we again brace ourselves for another round of medical, psychological and existential assaults!
I never used to be aware of or believe in a Militia in America. I was naive, until I actually talked to its members and now better appreciate the fact that they are very real!
My first encounter came while I was going to the TDCJ Correctional Academy in deep East Texas.
I befriended a very outgoing class member who was very enthusiastic about being a correctional officer. He seemed like just another good old boy that I frequently meet throughout much of Texas. The “salt of the earth” as we sometimes say.
During our conversations about guns and shooting, he asked me if I would like to do some target practicing at his brothers shooting range, which was close to our academy.
The weekend came, and I followed him to the range, where I met his brother and his family. His wife was very pregnant at the time and they had several little ones running around, semi-clothed.
They lived in a cramped trailer house, that was very cluttered and in disaray. After meeting my new friends brother, we went out to the shooting range to plink a bit.
Now I am not the worst shot, even with a .357 Magnum six shooter. After observing the shooting skills of my new friends, I felt rather embarrassed
Now if you own your own shooting range, it stands to reason, you might be better than most when it comes to plinking. As it turns out, what these two gentelment could do with semi-auto and wheel guns was frighteningly good.
Targets were mounted on pulley system that pushed them across the range at a good clip. I emptied my Smith & Wesson Model 19, and all six cartridges missed.
I would have felt better if my two new East Texas boys had the same experience, but they were deadly accurate. I was both embarrassed and impressed.
After target practice, I was invited into the trailer to look at the stockpile of weapons inside. As it turned out, these fellas were ready for the day when America needed to be saved. The arsenal was impressive.
It also turned out that the owner of this private armory been previously employed as a corrections officer by the State, but let go for being a little over the top for his uses of force.
After some talking, I was more appreciative of the fact that these two Americans were true militia zelaots, who were part of a larger group preparing for civil war.
Now this occurred in early 2000, long before what we see happening in America with massive weapons sales and civil disobedience. However, it was post 9-11, which was a stark reminder that foreign powers were a very real threat to our sovereignty
My Second Encounter
Fast forward to 2007 when I was working and living in Gainesville, Texas were I had my second introduction to the reality of the American Militia movement.
As I was tooling around in Wal-Mart, I wondered into the sporting goods section and was looking at their selection of pistols and long-guns. Gainesville is great hunting country, and the Wal-Mart had an impressive collection of weapons and ammo.
This was long before Wal-Mart became politically correct and decided to stop selling handguns.
As I was looking at the stock, a raggedy looking, tall man in his late 30’s, wearing buckskin clothing with his pants tucked into the top of his cowboy boots approached me.
He started talking about America and how we all needed to be ready to defend our country when the time came. He then identified himself as Captain in a local Militia, and he was recruiting volunteers.
He told me that I did not have to have any military experience but just a willingness to be trained. Now mind you, this man did not crack a smile or give any indication that he was an actor in a wild west drama practicing his acting skills.
The gentlemen was genuine in his thoughts and beliefs about civil discord and his obligation as a Militia Man, to protect our country.
Now in this situation, like the prior one I mentioned, these good people were pretty covert. They feared the government and Big Brother interrupting their plans to organize.
Is It The Right Time For Social Justice Protests in 2020?
Fast forward to 2020 America. We see images of citizens armed openly with AR-15 and holstered handguns. We see police dressed in battle fatigues confronting protesters.
We hear from Black Lives Matter and White Supremacist groups who see each other as a threat to American survival.
We have the ingredients present now for the Militia Men to come forward. The average American does not have a clue about these folks because, like all secretive movements that fear the government, they hide.
The America we know today, is a fractured and divided America along religious, social, economic, and political lines. Our ability to negotiate, or find a middle ground on our beliefs and values is seriously absent.
Today’s enemy is not the foreign powers that attacked us during 9-11. We rallied forcefully and quickly to defend our America.
The Reality of Polarization in America
The time now is a dangerous one, because we have become polarized into camps where we see the other camp as our enemy.
Portland Oregon is the most recent example of this danger occurred when individuals who represent right wing extreme ideology came to Portland to confront the violence on the streets there as self appointed militia.
One lone individual arrived from out of state and shot several people. This “shooter” is being hailed as a hero by some conservative groups and villainized by liberal groups. He is now charged with murder.
I couldn’t help to wonder, “What if this “shooter” had showed up in one our schools?”
That horrible incident in Portland was soon followed by numerous vehicles of gun toting militia types showed up with high powered rifles and paintball guns.
That group claimed allegiance to Donald J. Trump, the current president of America.
Their motive was to somehow stop protesters. Local police, already stressed and stretched thin by many competing public safety demands in their city did not see these militia as either needed or wanted.
This new reality happening TODAY makes us much more open to Civil War. It also, makes us vulnerable to our very real external foreign enemies who understand that if we are drained by a domestic civil war, we will have much less ability to thwart their outside attacks on America.
Maybe the militias can claim victory in their localized domestic attacks but will they win the larger battles against a much more powerfully armed foreign enemy? Inconcebible you say?
Given how inconceivable today’s domestic warfare would have seemed immediately after 9-11, I would venture to say it is becoming very conceivable!
Covid 19 and the realities of economic chaos, are creating a perfect storm that will test our resolve to remain America The Beautiful.
Often, thinking about retirement can be difficult because we are not sure what questions to ask and where to start. So lets start with asking the Why, When, How, and Where.
Retirement Before or After Covid
The Covid Pandemic has undeniably changed the answers to many of the above questions, especially the when and the where. Economic stability concerns and travel restrictions, are new elements in the retirement equation.
A good example of how the travel restrictions have played out is the surge in Recreational Vehicle sales and Pick-up trucks.
With fears about safety and sanitation on airplanes and in hotels, many individuals have sought the freedom of the open road.
Prices have skyrocketed due to limited manufacturing supply in both sectors and high demand for existing inventories. Spaces to rent in RV parks have been difficult to come by without advanced reservations.
No doubt, these purchases were not previously planned and were not on many peoples radar until Covid changed our daily routines.
Asking the Why?
There are lots of reasons to retire aside from your financial readiness. Sometimes retirement occurs because of an unexpected threatening medical issue.
Sometimes its because we unexpectedly receive an unexpected financial windfall.
At other times it’s because we need a temporary respite from work and career in order to re-consider what really matters to us.
In America, we have this notion that retirement is something that occurs coincidentally with our eligibility for Social Security if we qualify. If our portfolio of stocks, our 401Ks, Roths, and other retirement plans contain enough money to last us the rest of our days, we may pull the plug on regular work.
In order to get your answers to some of the issues in retirement, I highly would recommend that you develop a “Vision Board” that is broken down into various life event categories. This will help you to “flesh out” some of the values, beliefs and emotions that you have around being retired.
Asking the When?
Today there is a whole cadre of people who buy into the FI movement which stands for Financial Independence.
These are folks whose investment focus early on in life is to gain the financial independence that allows them to leave their 9-5 jobs for some type of life adventure.
Much of what has driven the FI movement has been the uncertainty that younger people feel about the future of Social Security. Many of these folks have the belief that any available Social Security money they get at retirement should be the cherry and cream on the retirement pie and not the pie itself.
These folks are not waiting for their 62nd, 65th, 66th, or 70th Birthdays to retire on Social Security. They are looking to retire either partially or fully at ages somewhere between 30 and 50.
Asking The How
Our beliefs about retirement determine HOW we plan for it.
Do you believe you won’t live long enough to see retirement?. Do you have medical issues that force you to stay employed for the insurance and as a result you will die working? Do you have so much debt that affording retirement is impossible?
Most of us will not be able to survive on Social Security alone without entering the ranks of poverty. Children, if you have them, may or may not be financially able to care for you.
To answer the how question, you have to honestly evaluate if you have done some thoughtful retirement planning in the past or if you are willing to start now?
Have you consistently reviewed and adjusted your financial portfolio, if you are even lucky enough to have one?
Do you work with a certified financial planner or a CPA to learn about the best investment opportunities that minimize your tax consequences in retirement?
Do you know the values in any 401K’s, Roths, cash accounts, life insurance policies, or a reverse mortgage?
Have you assessed your current and future medical and mental health issues? Do you have an idea of how long you can live independently? Is there a family medical history of diseases that lead to an early death? Do you think you will or you won’t outlive your money?
Asking the Where
Personally, I have considered the “where” question VERY seriously from a financial point of view. Again, the vision board activity helps to both include and exclude locations. Are you a warm weather or cold weather lover? Do you like the mountains, the ocean, or the open spaces. Do you need to be around people in a metropolitan area or do you favor a remote rural location?
My preferences of where to retire included considering such things as being near water, being in a warm or cool climate, access to services such as hospitals and public transportation.
You can limit your “Where” to the country you live in, or consider residing elsewhere.
After researching for a year, I knew some of by basic requirements. I needed a location that was warm and not too rainy. I wanted someplace that had reliable and affordable medical care. I discovered that I loved the Spanish culture with it’s emphasis on vitality and family, (despite a limited Spanish vocabulary). And most of all, I love the ocean!!
I was focused on the exchange rate between the locations I considered and the the U.S. Dollar. I explored requirements for passports, visas, and different types of residency status. I explored the ease of returning to the mainland USA via international airports.
Get Excited and Get a Passport!
I decided to get my Passport and then proceeded to traveled on three separate occasions to Puerto Rico, Mexico and Panama.
Of course, Puerto Rico is not cheap in comparison to Mexico and Panima, but it does have U.S. Territory status, so having a Passport is not necessary. The economy and crime in parts of Mexico ended up being a deal killer, despite my love of the very wonderful people.
Panama was interesting, but the rainy season, poverty, and overall poor sanitation, dissuaded me, as did all the military and police roadblocks searching for drugs. Now admittedly, I was fortunate to be financially able to visit these places in person, but there are hundreds of books, You Tube to help educate you without having to do the traveling up front.
As you can see, this is a challenging and fun process, but it is not easy and it requires doing it before those magic “retirement birthdays”.
One helpful retirement planning tool you can explore are vision boards. These help you to see what your values have been, what they are today and how they could change in retirement.
You can find many examples of Vision Boards by Googling the term, going to Pinterest or to You Tube. It is so worth the time to put one of these together!
Writing about culture change in policing within today’s challenging environment is no easy task. Due to the implications of culture change within policing agencies in today’s confrontational environment, I have tried to keep focused on what I believe are the prominent internal cultural challenges that law enforcement agencies across the country face today.
While I will specifically address the issue of police culture, we must always remember, that the larger societal culture, which itself, is composed of other “sub-cultures” also factor into the how police culture is formed and operates today. Any attempts to modify police culture MUST also acknowledge the values and beliefs that dominate the general culture. It is that general culture where legislatures on both the state and federal level “operationalize” the values of their communities.
An example of this would be the larger societies values and beliefs regarding justice, race, poverty, crime, and so on. These are the base values that go into laws and laws are a base value in culture and more specifically in police cultures.
So first I have to say that I am offering this perspective only from my personal experiences, without offering references to hard research. I am a long-time law enforcement, corrections and mental health professional, with a career that began in the 1980’s. I also a Master Peace Officer, Mental Health Peace Officer, Licensed Professional Counselor and Certified Train the Trainer for the Blue Courage Program and I believe strongly in Community Policing and Restorative Justice. But perhaps my biggest credential is my heart for the profession of law enforcement.
That said, I certainly welcome any dialogue on this issue here at Sawayer Logistics at sawayer.com. So here is my pitch.
Most change within institutionalized settings is unfortunately reactive, as opposed to proactive. This is especially true when in comes to organizational change. The recent violence in America, has once again forced police agencies to reflect on how much or little they should change. Police agencies, by their structure are resistant and slow to change. Some reasons for this are because they are conservative and are accountable to political bodies within the communities they serve. We often hear the adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”. But what exactly is broke and where is broke found?
The George Floyd death would certainly indicate that the four police officers involved were broken in terms of both their actions and inaction that lead to Floyd’s murder. We need to ask ourselves if cops can be murderers and that is very distasteful question to even ask. On its’ face, such thoughts seem to fly in the face of what we as professional peace keepers are mandated to do….Serve and Protect.
Since the Floyd issue is far from an isolated event, it may be time to look for answers about who we serve, how we serve, and why we serve. While minorities are over-represented in such tragic encounters with law enforcement, we tend to focus on race relations when addressing the question of what to do. I would suggest that we all, somewhere in our guts, understand that no new or improved trainings, policies, and procedures will have any lasting effect unless we change our current policing culture and the values within that culture.
Cultures are funny animals. They are often created slowly, over decades. They often take decades to change because by their very nature, they are conservative entities. Changing police culture is substantially more challenging than implementing new policies, procedures and trainings. While there are studies on police cultures, there are not many that specifically provide a “how to” paradigm. All of the literature points to the high level of resistance to police culture change from both within the ranks and from police administrators. It’s a tough mountain to climb.
The recent events in our cities and the degree of national and world attention to those events are pushing us up that mountain. If we are to reach the top, we must see the value of making the climb, even after the voices for change become quiet. We must change police culture because we are professionals bearing some of the strongest and most respected job responsibilities in society. So was there an identifiable starting point that contributed to today’s police culture? Let me suggest that was such a point. I will also suggest that we have some available tools to help get to a new beginning.
Since Americas trauma and the resulting transformation, law enforcement has been exposed to a new wrinkle within its’ culture. “Para-Militarization” has invaded the cop culture with a vengeance. The war and the warrior mentality, along with almost free military equipment, from helicopters to transports and Humvees, are standard fare in most agencies today.
At the time of 9-11, nothing seemed to out of bounds in our flight to protect the homeland from foreign terrorists. The intent was to never again be the unaware victim. Americans faced new security procedures at their airports and at their banks.
The less obvious change in procedures was occurring in law enforcement agencies, which historically had some type of command and control infrastructure. As a result, the transition to a more militarized culture was somewhat familiar territory. The availability of the military equipment merely solidified that cultural transition.
I remember training’s that I attended, where we were told that we were the “Sheepdogs”, protecting the vulnerable “Sheep” from the terrorist predators. Ironically, the trainings focus was on school violence. This new mantra ultimately was reflected in the idea that we were now the new para-military heroes, deployed to Americas streets in our surplus military equipment and attire, to kick some serious ass.
Somewhere and somehow this new mindset morphed into a permanent part of the police culture in such a way that it became the antithesis of community policing. With foreign enemies largely destroyed on American and foreign soil, the new cop culture with all of its surplus military equipment, seemed like a dog without any cats.
The implementation and deployment of special units know as SWAT teams began to play a central part in departments across the land. In the process, the officers participating in those units began to gain a great deal of cultural influence and the mindset within policing went from “we are part of the community”, to the “community are dumb sheep and we are superior sheepdogs”, to “them vs. us”.
Now to be clear, historically, law enforcement had its’ “suspects” some of which included those who were clearly “not us”. Foreigners, minorities, the poor, the mentally ill, and the law violators living in our communities. There was a growing institutionalized prejudice within the policing culture, that, until the last 20 years, wasn’t even discussed in training academies. There were no Humvees or tactical units in most departments back then.
With the 9-11 terrorists extinguished, the old familiar, “not us” groups became the new “bad guys” or to put in another way, the “them”. Agency leadership in departments could not resist the offer of getting surplus military equipment to supplement their fleets. Most departments had few dollars to spare for such costly equipment. It would take little effort to move toward creating SWAT tactical teams to utilize the new armada.
No one objected, not the city councils, not the county commissioners, not the state governors, not the congress, and not even members of the local communities. Without open discussion regarding why and how this para-militarization was happening, the parameters of its’ implementation and its’ goals, the cultural change went underground and out of sight.
The new police culture was now one that had the capacity for aggression and tactical interventions. Community policing, where officers were in personal contact with the man on the street for most departments stopped. Contacts with the public became formal and impersonal. It was now, “them vs. us”.
The cop, sitting in the standard issue patrol car holding the para-military, aggressive mindset doesn’t need a Humvee to feel his power over others anymore. The “Sheepdog” has now lost it’s protective instinct toward the sheep. There are good sheep and bad sheep…white sheep and black sheep.
Body cameras, which became possible and practical to issue because of technology, were supposed to protect cops and community members alike. Instead they were often resented by line officers as just another piece of “squealer” technology that carried yet another set of policies and procedures that had to be followed. In actuality, these cameras often have served a preventative function when seen as an officer protection.
So what does all of this imply for changing police interactions with the communities they serve?
I contend that the violence on American streets will not be solved by just better training alone because the training will not overtake the current police culture. Instead, there has to be more open contact and communication at the “street officer” level with the common and every day community members they serve.
There needs to be not just more tactical trainings but also a focus on officer mental and spiritual well being. It’s the only way to stop the “them vs. us” mentality that justified para-military interventions. Yes, we can have working groups and task forces, but the real change is at the street level by empowered cops who have the right mindset and the right heart for the profession and are rewarded for that as opposed to being shamed for it!
The most effective equipment has to be controlled by the heart first and the mind second, which then controls the body. For those of us who are authorized under very limited conditions, to take a life, the heart must be right.
Policies and procedures and trainings don’t change the heart. Open conversations and regular contact with the communities we serve as “street level cops” however does help tremendously.
It’s that contact that can either foster paranoia and hate or goodwill, especially when it involves being in touch with the “them”.
It will take time. Maybe we need to just go ahead and start painting those Humvees in pastels colors now!!
The Blue Courage training program for law enforcement officers and the perspective that it offers on community justice and community policing, should be a critical component of most law enforcement training. It and similar programs are what is needed now, more than new rules or new procedures or new training, you must change the heart in order to have positive community contact, which takes…well…Blue Courage!
The BlueCourage.com webpage is full of great articles and other offerings for LEOs (Law Enforcement Officers).
It’s a well recognized fact that major, wide spread disasters often bring about unintended consequences. The Covid 19 worldwide pandemic has been such an event, causing unintended consequences for the provision of mental health services. While these consequences have been “unintended” they are not necessarily bad.
Prior to the Covid19 pandemic, video conferencing was just taking on deep roots in the business world. Platforms like Skype, Zoom, and Lifesize Cloud, were valued for their different capabilities, but especially because the provided good security protocols against cyber criminals along with financial costs savings.
Some medical health care systems that served rural parts of America, where doctors were in short supply had also begun using video conferencing to provide expanded services to both patients and doctors living in remote and thereby often under served areas.
One such use of video conferencing is Project ECHO, https://echo.unm.edu/, which is generally University based, was already providing telehealth services to individuals, and consultation from medical specialists to rural doctors who were connected via the internet.
Outside of business and medical applications of video conferencing, there was simultaneously, a growing number of popular social media platforms that had become available on line. The more popular ones being Messenger, JOI, DUO, WhatsApp, Hangouts, Marco Polo, Face Time, Houseparty, Instagram, and Discord were quickly replacing texting and phone calls. But while these technologies and platforms were already in place prior to Covid19, their use was aimed mostly at general social sharing and entertainment.
Covid19 changed all of that at warp speed. The newly invoked public health protocols called for social distancing and shelter in place rules which meant that individual mobility and interpersonal contact was restrained in an effort to limit contagion of Covid19.
Personal protective equipment items such as disposable gloves and masks were being used for the times that individuals had to venture outside of their homes, causing further restraint. Workers and the business services they were part of were divided into essential and non-essential categories.
Any venue where a large gathering was possible was closed or severely limited in numbers. This included work sites, churches, schools, etc.
This sudden change in mobility and physical contact then created it’s own set of problems. Prior to the pandemic, Mental Health Service providers, had begun utilizing video technology to maximize mental health resources and save time, had to a limited degree, already been in place, but were used mainly as an option to the preferred face to face contacts. The reason? Insurance reimbursements. Most of the insurance payers would not reimburse for video therapeutic services. When individual therapists and mental health agencies attempted to limit their staffs exposure to Covid19, the use of video conferencing for staff working from home grew as fast as the virus!
Most clients had access to smart phones, which were capable of video conferencing and many consumers were already familiar with video communication thru their own personal use of social media. But this increased utilization of video conferencing was only the beginning for changes in Mental Health Services.
Covid19 introduced multiple mental and physical stressors across the board. There was no physical or emotional escape into a place of safety.
This was compounded by he lack of any available specific vaccinations against Covid19, the long incubation period, the high level of contagion during the incubation period and the lethal outcomes for certain populations, the governmental mandated social distancing, the inability to be with loved living outside the home or with family who were stricken by the disease, the over-burdened health care system that struggled to keep up with known cases while keeping staff safe, and the fear that a lack of testing, meant that the pandemic could be anywhere and could be much more widespread than was known.
All of these issues, overwhelmed the normal physical and emotional coping mechanisms in much of the population.
Long term, forced isolation began to manifest itself in symptoms of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and increased substance abuse. Hospitals and emergency rooms that were now focused on providing medical interventions to the virus patients, had to limit or re-prioritize mental health services.
But a silver lining from the pandemic unexpectedly emerged for both medical providers and mental health providers. The silver lining came in the form of redefining social and legal priorities and specifically by waiving traditional Federal, State, and local regulations that slowed down the ability to provide direct medical and psychiatric services quickly and across jurisdictions.
Legal restrictions for professionals who were now being asked to provide help outside of the State where they held licensed to practice had to be relaxed and waived. The insurance companies began to authorize increases in the number and types of services that they would pay for. This was especially true for mental health service providers.
Previously, it was very difficult to get reimbursed for providing tele-behavioral health to individuals. The mental health system was historically geared to paying for services provided in “brick and mortar” offices and clinics, which had now shut down in order to limit physical contact between staff and clients.
The traditional paradigms of service provision were forced to shift and the shift was made available by the reliability of the internet and dependable software platforms that could temporarily substitute for the brick and mortar service model.
Schools and Churches quickly followed suit. The new reality was virtually, “virtual” reality.
Now to be clear, “virtual” is not a substitute for being with another individual in person either for social contact or professional contact. It is merely a means of providing services, when the in person contact is impractical or potentially dangerous. “Virtual” encounters, do require the investment in the ownership or at least some electronic hardware to access to video technology.
However the financial investment is offset from the realized savings from the initial outlay. A mental health agency lowers costs for staff travel, hotels, and food, reduced staff stress and reduced sick leave while also increasing productivity related to time efficiencies.
Then there is the time saving factor for consumers and the overall convenience to them with access to tele-behavioral health. In addition, there are generally lower fees for services due to the fact that the overhead that therapists and agencies endure from of utilities, taxes and mortgage costs that comes with “brick and mortar” can be greatly reduced and thereby passing on those savings to their clients. Another positive for mental health consumers is the ability to seek mental health services without the fear of being seen in a clinic or a therapists office by people they know.
It will now be “virtually” impossible for major segments of the society who were able to utilize this technology, be they health care providers, schools, mental health practitioners to not insist that these emergency models become institutionalized after the pandemic has gone. The mass use of these technologies is out of the bag, and if used in the right mix between in person contact and virtual contact, it promises to change how mental health services, education, health care, faith services, and perhaps most importantly, family interactions will work.
The horse is out of the barn and the bridle is removed. It’s now time to learn some new riding skills!
Also view the YouTube Video below on Mental Health in
