CHECKPOINTS

First Responders pay a heavy toll for their years of service to our communities: a cost that is often paid at the expense of their peace, health, families, and sometimes their lives. The emotional health support systems that were in place to protect you were often, if not always, waiting for you to be broken before help was ever initiated. And as a result, we've just gone over the tipping point. It's no secret that policing is a tough profession. What has been a secret is the real reason why policing is so difficult. It's not because of the danger, the bullets, or the bad guys. It's not even because of the shift work, late nights or fear of attack. Policing is hard because of what it does to your mind - and the amount of secondary trauma you consume. You stand in proximity to other people's grief, tragedy, and sadness on a daily basis. You absorb it and carry it whether you want to or not. Law enforcement has never had a strategy to help process the daily exposure to trauma in a healthy way. There has been no time, tools, steps or processes to cope well, heal well, or recover well - until now.