Description
In Collaboration with Odd Squad Productions
Odd Squad Productions is a charitable organization comprised of serving and retired police officers and volunteers. It is recognized as an international leader in the field of drug and gang education for youth.
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
Login: 8:30 am Pacific Standard Time (Vancouver, BC)
Session: 9:00 am–11:00 am Pacific Standard Time (Vancouver, BC)
A 90-minute session, with a 30-minute live Q&A to follow
Ticket pricing: $39 USD for single tickets.
For groups of 11-30 attendees from within the same organization, we are offering a flat fee of $399 USD. Your cart will automatically update once 11-30 tickets are added.
(An email will be sent closer to the event date giving details of the Zoom Link to join this session. Please look out for this and check your spam/ junk folder in case it goes in there by mistake)
According to Bob Rich, former Chief of Police for the Abbotsford Police Department, “The average person encounters around 4 events in their lifetime that could cause them a traumatic injury. A police officer encounters around 100-400 events in their career that may cause trauma and lead to PTSD.”
Chief Rich is no stranger to the impact trauma can have on a police force. In 2015, Abbotsford PD lost two members to suicide. In 2017, his detachment lost Const. John Davidson when he was killed in the line of duty. It was at Davidson’s memorial that Chief Rich instructed his members to “take a knee” and urged them to take their mental health just as seriously as they take their physical health. “If you’re struggling, get help. Talk to a counsellor, ask your family for help, take sick days, do whatever it takes to get well.”
Chief Rich says that far too often, police officers ignore operational stress injuries. He says that the “suck it up attitude” in policing needs to end. In this session, Chief Rich will share why he has become an advocate for police mental health. Using data and research, Chief Rich will answer the question that many members often ask themselves in the aftermath of traumatic events, “Can we do this job and still be ok?”
This session will include:
Stats on mental health for police officers and first responders.
- Is PTSD inevitable for police officers?
- The stress wheel – What is pushing in on us?
- “Organizational stress” – A euphemism for how we are hurting our own people.
- Prevention Strategies: Rather than try to fix the people who get seriously hurt, how about if we stop it from happening?
- How we can minimize the potential for trauma for members who are going to hard calls.
- Brain Science: What happens with trauma and how does it become PTSD?
- How we can interrupt the process of trauma leading to PTSD?
- Building healthy organizations.
- Fostering true resiliency.
- The way forward.
