My professional journal review for my abnormal psychology class

[BrewCityBuck]

I just got this done today, worked on it all morning, it's one of my two final papers for this class, this is supposed to be and is 6 pages double spaced and my second is 15 pages. I did this on a journal article on police stress. If anyone has the time take a stab at it.

For my Professional Journal Article Review I decided to review the article Police Trauma and Addiction: Coping with the dangers of the Job. I got this article from The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. This article was printed in the October 2004 issue found on page 24 and was written by Chad L. Cross and Larry Ashley.The article starts out by explaining that law enforcement officers often face traumatic incidents daily. These traumatic events deeply influence officers and they are forced to develop coping strategies. Many officers unfortunately use substance or chemical abuse to ease the pain of the job. Also ignoring or trying to forget traumatic instances on the job according to the article can lead to short and long-term consequences. The first part of this article explains understanding trauma and stress responses. Examples of police trauma listed in the article include: Officer-involved shootings, the death of a co-worker, serious injury while on duty, life-threatening incidents, hostage situations or negotiations, exposure to intense crime scenes, a police suicide, or any situation that falls outside the realm of normal experience. Also listed in this section are the different symptoms resulting from traumatic events. The kinds listed are cognitive, physical, behavioral and emotional. Cognitive symptoms include: Confusion, difficulty concentrating and intrusive thoughts. Physical symptoms include fatigue, headaches or changes in sleep patterns and appetite. Behavioral symptoms include withdrawal, acting out or substance abuse. Emotional symptoms include anxiety, fear, depression, anger or guilt or feelings of helplessness. The article says that officers often times get a combination of the different symptoms and they worsen and compound over time as officer?s experience more traumas. Also the article states that if officers don?t develop or don?t take advantage of help offered emotional exhaustion or ?burnout? can happen.The next section of the article goes over the diagnosis of psychological stress responses. It starts out by talking about how like combat veterans, law enforcement officers also have to deal with violent stresses on the job. The psychological effects of these experiences can become acute or chronic; these stresses often lead to substance abuse. Next the article talks about post-traumatic stress disorder. The article says that PTSD is most often associated with traumatic incidents experienced by law enforcement officers. PTSD symptoms include experiencing intense fear, helplessness, or horror and can lead to officers re-experiencing the traumatic event. The article also explains time periods involved and when to suspect PTSD. If PTSD symptoms persist for more than one month or appear for the first time in six months after the incident then PTSD should be investigated. The article then says that if symptoms appear and then disappear within one month then acute stress disorder should instead be looked into. The next section goes over the impacts of trauma. It says that every law enforcement officer experiences problems or traumatic events differently. Stress responses begin with panic reactions and anxiety which lead to other symptoms including according to the article problems with concentrating or feels and feeling like your overwhelmed. The article states that these problems can actually lead to physical symptoms which include tachycardia, gastrointestinal distress and hypertension.The next section in the article talks about linking trauma and substance abuse. This section explains the widespread and rampant use of substance and chemical abuse among law enforcement officers. It says that alcohol abuse is often underreported and deserves special attention. The next part of this article is where I was shocked. The amount of police officers that were found to be alcohol dependant was mind-blowing. According to the article studies have found that nearly one-quarter of law enforcement officers are abusing alcohol because of on-the-job stress. The article references another study of 852 police officers in New South Wales, Australia. This study found that about 50% of male officers consumed excessive amounts of alcohol and nearly 40% of women officers as well. Excessive amounts of alcohol are defined as 8 drinks per week at least twice a month or 28 drinks a month. For females it?s 6 drinks per week at least twice a month or 14 drinks a month. The study also found that 90% of officers there consumed alcohol to some degree. The article then explained that the unique subculture of law enforcement makes alcohol use appear as an accepted practice to promote camaraderie and social interaction among co-worked. However this can easily be abused because of the stress of the job. Also the article says that researchers have identified four occupational demands that trigger alcohol abuse by police officers. These four include depersonalization which is reacting unemotionally to stress of the job. Authoritarianism where an officer?s behavior is governed by regulation which makes them feel like they are not in control. Also there?s organizational protection which is the structure in place to protect police agencies from criticism. The last one is danger preparation which is stress related to officers knowing their lives are always in danger. The next section of the article involves the rise in law enforcement drug use and abuse. The rise in drug abuse among police officers has caused many departments to enforce drug testing programs. The article says that a movement towards having a drug-free workplace exists throughout law enforcement agencies. Police officers feel that drugs can help numb the pain they feel from worked related stress. Police according to the article are more susceptible to drug abuse because they come in close contact with drugs and the people that deal them. Knowing the affects of the drugs on people you would think officers would stay away from drugs but job stress and accessibility make drug abuse for police officers too common. According to the article treating police officers that are abusing drugs indicate individual and group mental health treatment but treating law enforcement officers can be problematic for mental health workers. The article states that law enforcement officers have always been skeptical of health professionals because they don?t know what it?s like to do police work. To help with this mindset the article has five suggestions to help health workers treat police officers. The first is a basic grounding in policing. The second is a localized knowledge of the agency and administrations within which their clients reside. The third is a unique comprehension of the trauma and stresses inherent to police work. The fourth is an understanding of dark humor that?s often used by officers to vent stress-induced anger and frustration. The fifth is an ability to build rapport which is establishing a trusting and respectful atmosphere where they can assure officers complete confidentiality. The next section of the article deals with integrated treatment approach. It says that police substance abuse will not just go away and that the atmosphere in law enforcement agencies should change. Downplaying, rationalization and denying addictions is the wrong thing to do and to help officers become open things need to be changed. The article suggests law enforcement agencies invest in an integrated model of awareness and treatment. Here are a few examples of what the authors of this article suggest for police support services. First they suggest law enforcement agencies have mental health professionals trained and certified in addictions on staff for consultations, interventions, and referrals. They also suggest that there should be police counselors who have knowledge of police infrastructure, programming, and administration be available. Second, agencies should have trauma teams that include mental health professionals on call when needed. Third, law enforcement agencies should have employee assistance professionals available to provide services outside the agency. Fourth, law enforcement agencies should have peer counselors with experience in trauma and addictions. The authors then go through suggestions for training and research. They think young recruits should get training in recognizing stress, dealing with traumatic incidents, and understanding the negative effects of substance abuse. Second law enforcement agencies should make critical incident trauma management training available to all law enforcement officers on an ongoing basis. Third, agencies should provide training to educate officers on the effects of alcohol abuse. They say that officers often serve programs to the public about substance abuse but not their own officers. Fourth, agencies need to learn the value of early intervention programs over treatment programs and how to provide a supportive atmosphere that acknowledges trauma and addiction efforts within their organization. Fifth, researchers, mental health and professional law enforcement experts need to further examine the role of trauma, stress and addiction and how it affects the lives of first-responding public safety personnel and find methods of intervention and treatment to those dedicated men and women who have to live with the stress of such a difficult job. The authors conclude by saying that too many officers tout the ?tough guy? image and are too afraid to come forward and receive the help they need. Too many think it?s weak or abnormal to seek help and that seeking help and admitting problems could result in disciplinary action or possibly getting fired. The conclusion of this article ends by saying that stress and drug abuse have far-reaching impacts not only to the law enforcement officer but to colleagues and family but the people they are sworn to protect.In my opinion I really liked this journal article. Chad Cross and Larry Ashley really understand this issue and what to do to help law enforcement officers with the issues of depression and drug abuse. They suggested a lot of programs near the end of the article that seems like good ideas but I don?t really know how and if they would work and if departments aren?t already using similar programs. Maybe when I am working as a police officer I will better understand the effectiveness of the programs and if they would be beneficial. Hopefully as more programs come out officers will become less afraid of coming forward with addiction and the issues can be worked on. What shocked me was the percentage of officers that abuse alcohol, if those statistics are true and generally apply to most departments, wow. After reading this substance abuse is a much bigger problem then I thought. The issue of substance abuse and stress in law enforcement hits home with me. My great grandpa worked for a Sheriff?s Department and had substance abuse issues. My cousin Patrick worked for the Appleton Police Department and left a few years ago because of the stress of the job and shift work. He was also not able to spend enough time with his wife and baby. The issue of stress and substance abuse is something my family is really concerned about with me. My mom?s side of the family has a history of alcohol abuse and my mom knows what it?s like working a very stressful job at St. Elizabeth Hospital. My mom often asks me if this is something I really want to do, but I couldn?t see myself doing anything else.