Increasing Resilience in Police and Emergency Personnel by Conn, Stephanie M.;

Short description:

Increasing Resilience in Police and Emergency Personnel illuminates the psychological, emotional, behavioral, and spiritual impact of police work on police officers, administrators, emergency communicators, and their families.

Long description:

Increasing Resilience in Police and Emergency Personnel illuminates the psychological, emotional, behavioral, and spiritual impact of police work on police officers, administrators, emergency communicators, and their families.

Author Stephanie Conn, a board-certified police psychologist as well as a former police officer and dispatcher, debunks myths about weakness and offers practical strategies in plain language for police employees and their families struggling with traumatic stress and burnout. Sections of each chapter also offer guidance for frequently overlooked roles such as police administrators and civilian police employees. Using real-world anecdotes and exercises, this book provides strengths-based guidance to help navigate the many complex, and sometimes difficult, effects of police and emergency work.

The second edition offers a variety of new first responder and wellness resources and addresses current demands placed on first responders, including exposure to chronic suffering, staffing shortages, burnout, organizational betrayal, and moral injury. It includes significant expansions of practical strategies based on advances in sleep science, optimizing performance and cognitive functioning based on developments in neuroscience, advanced peer support practices, and innovations in health and wellness.

"The second edition of Dr. Conn's valuable guide to strengthening resilience for first responders, their families, police administrators, and civilian employees is chock full of practical new ideas about coping with trauma, moral injury, PTSD, depression, organizational betrayal, and societal turmoil. She writes in a straightforward way infused with empathy and understanding that comes from her experience as a first responder."

Ellen Kirschman, PhD, author of I Love a Cop: What Police Families Need to Know, I Love a Fire Fighter: What the Family Needs to Know, and Counseling Cops: What Clinicians Need to Know (with Mark Kamena and Joel Fay)

"Stephanie has made a major and unique contribution to the field of public safety wellness. She provides a well-referenced scholarly work that draws on her unique lived experiences across several life roles. Her clinical experience as a respected veteran police psychologist, blending with this background, provides the reader with a valuable resource at multiple levels."

Kevin M. Gilmartin, PhD, author of Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement

"Dr. Conn set the bar for the study of resiliency in law enforcement with her first edition, and this newly updated, expanded edition impressively raises that bar. Dr. Conn’s law enforcement experience, combined with her expertise in police psychology sets her work as the model for the field. Officers, agency executives, the public, and police clinicians can all gain valuable insight from this highly recommended book."

Thomas Coghlan, PsyD, NYPD Det. (retired), owner, Blue Line Psychological Services, PLLC

Table of Contents:

1 Are Police Resilient? 2 Challenges to Police & First Responder Resilience 3 Critical Police Incidents: Reactions and Recovery 4 Secondary Traumatic Stress: Uncomplicated Strategies for Complex Trauma 5 Non-Operational Stressors: Catching the Sneaky Resilience Thief 6 Building Resilience: Mental & Emotional Armor 7 Building Resilience: Social Support & Life Design 8 Building Resilience: Healthy Living 9 Help to Be Resilient 10 Agency Resilience Programs Appendix: Suggested Resources