“Just from my experience, we’re seeing a higher level of incidence of mental health issues on a regular basis now than ever before.” Chris Grotton, who has served 30 years, said. “This is probably one of the top two or three topics being discussed in law enforcement circles today,” state police Maj. Chris Grotton: “Just from my experience, we’re seeing a higher level of incidence of mental health issues on a regular basis now than ever before.” (MSP/Katy England) ‘Resiliency check’Īt the Maine State Police, 2020 will see a new wellness initiative, based on six months of work in collaboration with the Maine State Troopers Association, that will encourage not just physical fitness efforts, but incentives for everyone working at the MSP to meet at least annually with a mental health professional for what’s known as a “resiliency check” for signs of traumatic stress. The good news is that leaders in the field are starting to recognize it and do something about it. The bad news is that it is becoming clear that this secondary-traumatic stress, and more typical post-traumatic stress, is an epidemic in the policing world. Not just the officers, but the evidence technicians, dispatchers, and others who are forced to encounter trauma after trauma, often with little downtime and ability to emotionally process what they’ve seen and heard. There’s one constituency, however, for which this kind of vicarious trauma can be an almost daily occurrence: those who work in law enforcement. The field of psychology has now established that just hearing a recounting of, or observing, traumatic events that are particularly awful – or exposure to many traumas vicariously over time – can trigger symptoms remarkably similar to the post traumatic stress injury of those who experienced the trauma first hand.Īnd so what of the jurors in the Carrillo case? The prosecutors? The judge? The reporters who covered the case? Many of them, like the jurors, hopefully can go home and talk it out with their families and friends, and maybe never come across something so horrific again. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families. The details are shocking enough to produce symptoms of what’s known as secondary trauma, vicarious trauma, or compassion fatigue: “feelings of isolation, anxiety, dissociation, physical ailments, and sleep disturbances,” according to the U.S. Julio had already pleaded guilty to the charges. The things that Sharon and Julio Carrillo did to their daughter, Marissa Kennedy, who died at their hands last year at the age of 10, are truly horrific.Īfter being shown photographs, hearing voice recordings, and listening to testimony, a jury of Sharon’s peers found her guilty of depraved indifference murder in December.
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