When an emergency arises, society calls on first responders to step in and deal with situations that many citizens are not equipped to handle. As a result, officers frequently witness things that humans were never meant to encounter and that standardized training may not prepare them for.
Many of these professionals have dealt with the mental and emotional impacts of what they have endured with little guidance on how to process these feelings in a healthy way. They are reluctant to seek mental health care because they fear being viewed as weak or incapable of performing their duties.
Unfortunately, this stigma has kept officers from getting the assistance they need. Current data suggests that first responders are attempting and dying by suicide at a much higher rate than initially thought.
