Anti Burnout “Essentials” Course for Officers – Part 2

CA POST Certified 4 hour CPT course Title Under “Wellness” CCN#1493-43170-21 / Certified Standards and Training for Corrections (STC-BSCC) Cert# 

There are a number of things that can cause burnout, exhaustion, anxiety, depression, trauma & chronic stress working in Law Enforcement.

And there are a number of solutions.

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The Most Essential Things to Know to Avoid Burnout & The Risk Factors On & Off The Job

See Part 1 for Free Webinar 

Contact Support@billfarr.com for question 

Anxiety, depression, trauma, PTSD, suicide, cynicism, divorce, heart disease, weight gain, alcoholism are all an epidemic for those in law enforcement as well as burnout & exhaustion. This seminar is a preventative approach to all those and more.

Anti-Burnout “Essentials” – Part 1 

4 Hours Taken out of 20

An officer’s mindset is by far the most important weapon and aspect of his or her policing. With this, techniques to avoid a negative mindset is essential when dealing with criminals, liars, anti-policing groups, a lack of appreciation & sleep, and much more. Without this something is going to break. That might be the officer’s will and spirit, their marriage, relationships with their children or friends, their mental and physical health, and anything that brings them happiness. Here we bring attention to the amount of negativity and how best to deal with them without falling into the trap of complaining, cynicism, sarcasm, and more that can break a person down. This includes techniques for how to deal with stress and what to do if that stress becomes too great. 

The goal of the course is for an officer to leave their shift knowing what to do to recover mentally, how to maintain a great relationship with their significant other and children, and to avoid burnout. This creates stronger department teams, and stronger family bonds to successfully avoiding the typical regrets officers have post-retirement.

 

• What do officers who are not dealing with these issues do differently?
• Why do so many officers die soon after retirement?
• Why marital problems?
• Why isolation?
• Why suicide?
• Why is the life expectancy of an officer 15 years less than normal people?

 

 

Burnout

• Feeling Overworked, fatigued, resentful
• Feeling undervalued and unappreciated
• In a state of physical, mental, & emotional exhaustion from demanding circumstances or situations.

 

 

Hypervigilance

The mindset necessary for policing is the opposite of what’s required for a healthy body, mind, a good marriage, and good parenting. 

 

If unchecked, the downward effects of hypervigilance will immediately cause:

• Weight gain
• Lack of sleep
• Low energy & personality
• Social isolation and lack of interest & socialization
• Sarcasm, bitterness, resentment, anger – feeling the need to fight or feeling the victim.
• Procrastination and difficulty in decision making not related to work.
• Noninvolvement in children’s needs and activities.

 

Avoid Officer’s Typical Regrets

When asked in retirement, the three things that officers’ regret the most are:

• They didn’t spend more time with their family
• They didn’t keep up their health
• They didn’t do more of the things that they love doing.

These are all direct causes of hypervigilance, burnout, hormone imbalance, and the other risk factors. We go over ways to counter all these. 

 

Better Officers / Better People / Better Community Relations

Having awareness of the risk factors, the solutions, and uniformity in the way officers think emotionally not only creates less reactive and volatile officers but also better husbands or wives, better parents, and happier people.

 

Tracking – Credit for the work

The seminar also includes a back-end system that can track an officer’s class completion, as well as answers to exercise questions and login time, and new lessons not opening up until previous lessons are completed. So there are multiple tracking methods if you’d like to add the completion of this to a bonus program or mandatory for a promotion as an example. Considering the number of risk factors caused directly by the job, some form of credit should be given for the work and it is trackable.

If as an individual officer, you want to get credit for this seminar with the department then send them the link and I’ll do everything I can to get your department on board to offer it with possible credit, either way, the benefits far excide the price and effort as it will directly affect your happiness and that of your family.

 

How These Risk Factors Costs a Department/Community:

• Higher Incidents 
• Law Suits
• Poor Police / Community Relations
• More Accidents 
• Sick days
• Workers’ Comp 
• Man Power – Loss of Officers to Retirement, termination, paid or unpaid leave
• Lowered Productivity
• Lowered Retention Rate
• Lowered Engagement

 

 

Bill is a POST/STC certified trainer, a certified Master Herbalist, a Diet & Nutritional Advisor, a member of the International Alliance of Holistic Therapists, a best selling author, has taught in more than 20 countries, has worked with professional athletes, artists, consulted for large companies on avoiding burnout & lowering stress in the workplace, has been featured in Redbook, The Boston Globe, Expert Beacon, Fact-Based Health, and many more, with over 100 radio interviews. He has over 400,000 Social Media Followers & over 10 Million Video views.

 

 

 

Sources:

• https://www.inverse.com/article/56412-world-health-organization-job-burnout-signs-you-have-it-who-s-most-at-risk
• Divorce – https://www.policemag.com/374429/dealing-with-divorce-on-the-home-front
• https://www.officer.com/home/article/10233798/preventing-the-long-and-lonely-ride-to-officer-burnout
• https://stress.lovetoknow.com/work- related-stress/critical-incident-stress-debriefing-group-therapy
• https://stress.lovetoknow.com/Which_Professionals_are_Prone_to_Burnout
• http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2009/issue61/
• https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/mindfulness-meditation-practice-changes-the-brain
• https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/what-meditation-can-do-for-your-mind-mood-and-health-
• https://www.gallup.com/workplace/288539/employee-burnout-biggest-myth.aspx
• Amygdala Source – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZGxYBsUXgU
• Burnout and PTSD – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFkI69zJzLI
• Source – https://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/burnout-prevention-and-recovery.htm