Police Stress Interventions

In the aftermath of several high impact and high profile events within the city of Newark and the Newark Police Department, a request was made by Newark Police and a program was initiated to provide educational preventive interventions and an anonymous hotline that would afford police officers access to immediate mental health referrals and services. The program was funded by the Violence Institute of New Jersey at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and supported by the administration of the police department. The lectures and content of the program were well received by the police officers, reflected in their attendance and involvement in each of the program segments. During and following the presentation of the programs, a significant increase in the use of the dedicated hotline provided for the officers of the Newark Police Department was observed. Based on the favorable results of this project, a follow-up program is currently proposed to add this content to the training of recruits at the police academy, and to add another component of training in critical incident stress management. [Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention 3:47–53 (2003)]