Who helps those who help?
This is the question that plays over and over in Lynette Butler’s mind. After 25 years as a police sergeant with the William Paterson University Police Department, Butler knows just how little help first responders receive — or feel safe receiving — as their mental health deterioration threatens to take their lives.
“Therapy saved my life,” says Butler, who was diagnosed with PTSD 21 years ago. “But I did not go through an EAP program, because my job would've known and I didn't trust them. There's a big lack of trust in this industry when it comes to accessing services for our mental health.”
That lack of trust can come at a deadly cost. According to the Ruderman Family Foundation, law enforcement officers and firefighters are more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty. The Family Institute at Northwestern University found that rates of suicide for police officers and firefighters were four to five points higher than the average population.
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“I lost four officers from a department near me in the last two years,” Butler says. “They were the happiest guys — the ones that were there for everybody. But some of us get so good at faking happiness and keeping that mask on our face.”
But for officers that face traumatic events on a daily basis, that mask can eventually crack. In a survey conducted by the law enforcement news platform Police1, PTSD was nine to 10 times more prevalent in police officers than the average population, and depression was five times more prevalent.
“We will never look at the world through their eyes,” says Kevin Lynch, president and CEO of the Quell Foundation, an organization dedicated to increasing access to mental healthcare through education and storytelling. “They deal with the loss of life possibly every day. Then they go home and be a mom or a dad, or deal with the divorce that they're going through or the bills they can't pay.”
If first responders do access mental health services, many feel they could be risking their careers. If an officer is diagnosed with PTSD or depression, the administration will take them out of action, often putting them on desk duty. In turn, first responders fear they could lose their job, promotions or the respect of their department, Butler explains.
“No one should suffer in silence because they're afraid they can't make a living for their family,” says Butler. “But in this culture, we're encouraged to just be strong and not talk about it.”
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Butler says officers will often tell the police psychologist that they are “okay” so they can be cleared for duty, even after they experience a deeply traumatizing incident. In her opinion, most police departments do little to confirm that “okay” since they are more worried about avoiding liability for potential misconduct than they are about the officer’s mental health, Butler says.
Even at home, first responders may attempt to compartmentalize their work, finding it difficult to share the realities of their day-to-day life with their families. Butler recalls getting a call where a 22-year-old boy had died, and she was tasked with taking hundreds of photos on the scene — all while having a 22-year-old son of her own at home.
“I know how a mother feels when her son is not coming back home, so that stuck with me,” she says. “For eight months I was seeing his dead body, smelling the smells and hearing the mother scream.”
That self-inflicted isolation can lead to additional pressure for the first responder — and even create unintentional stress for family members. “A spouse or significant other are not emotionally prepared to hear these things,” Lynch says. “Still, there’s vicarious trauma that loved ones can experience, even when the first responder is never able to communicate and unpack what they’ve experienced fully.”
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A study published in the peer-reviewed medical journal, JAMA Psychiatry, found that 10.4% of children with parents who had mood disorders and a history of suicidal attempts had tried to kill themselves before or during the study, pointing to an increased generational risk of suicide.
“We have to make it acceptable for our first responders to reach out and ask for help,” says Lynch. “It starts at the top. When somebody can come through [admin’s] door and talk without negative repercussions, the likelihood of them doing that is greater.”
Butler suggests giving officers paid leave to process traumatizing events rather than just getting an officer “cleared” by a psychologist or putting them on desk duty. Since the police murder of George Floyd, an increased awareness of police brutality against Black Americans has led to seismic shifts in society's perception of officers. In turn, many departments are understaffed and pressured to push officers back into the field as quickly as possible; retirements are up by 45% and resignations are up by 18% between April of 2020 and April of 2021, according to the Police Executive Research Forum.
“This used to be thought of as an honorable job, but that’s changing,” says Butler. “There are police officers that should not have become police officers, and I’m not making excuses for any officers. But I know with the daily trauma most officers go through, we need time to navigate that, and we need someone to talk to.”
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Butler says this is crucial for the both lives of officers and the communities they are supposed to serve. An overworked cop with unaddressed mental health problems is hardly positioned to deescalate a crisis. Departments could adopt scheduled therapy check-ins and peer-to-peer counseling, so officers feel more comfortable discussing what they are going through, Butler explains.
As for now, Butler is partnering with Lynch and the Quell Foundation to supply free, anonymous mental health services to first responders. She’s also establishing a curriculum alongside Quell to educate officers on the effects the job will have on their mental health and how to take care of themselves before they even respond to their first call.
“My goal is to get this curriculum rolling, go around the country and save lives,” says Butler. “The stigma shouldn’t be so heavy that we think we can't get the help we need to be productive, to keep our families intact and to live a joyful life. Everybody deserves that.”
