A new initiative in West St. Paul requires police officers to schedule an annual wellness check-in with a therapist, even if there's nothing troubling them.
Police officers' jobs are demanding, even traumatic, but cops often resist seeking help when they're struggling in an effort to avoid appearing weak, said Andy Skoogman, executive director of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association.
"From a culture standpoint, law enforcement has been reluctant in the past to open up to this issue," Skoogman said. "I think that is changing."
West St. Paul's Wellness Initiative, which kicked off this spring, aims to address some of the barriers that keep law enforcement officers from seeing counselors, from scheduling challenges to the stigma of seeking psychological help.
The first requirement, said Lt. Matt Swenke of the West St. Paul Police Department, was to find a counseling service whose employees understood the idiosyncrasies of police work. The department chose Ellie Family Services, a company where many employees are trained in counseling law enforcement employees, because several officers were already going there.
"They understand some of how cops react, how they see the world, some of the crazy nuances that officers have," said Swenke, who is in charge of the program.
To put officers at ease, the visits aren't just confidential — they involve no note-taking or written records. Officers can discuss whatever they want during the one-hour session, said Erin Pash, co-owner of Ellie Family Services, from parenting issues to work-life balance. Sometimes counselors spend time debunking myths about therapy, she said, or explaining how to set up regular visits with a counselor.
"We make sure they know they're not being diagnosed," said Pash, who designed the program. "One of [officers'] biggest fears is, 'Is this going to be used against me in a civil suit?' "