Reference no: EM133720434

Question: Law enforcement officers must deal with countless stressors in their line of work. Whether it's staffing shortages, mandatory overtime, shift work, their administration, or just their demanding job, the list could go on. The job of a law enforcement officer is like no other and its hard for people outside of this line of work to truly grasp all the challenges and stressors they are faced with every day. As we have learned over the last six weeks when officers choose to ignore these stressors instead of learning how to manage them it can have server impact on their physical and mental health. Knowing this one could argue why not just make stress management mandatory or force the officer to seek counseling the fact is unless they are open to the idea or want it, its not going to help. Since as far back as I can remember Law enforcement, specifically male officers have always been expected to suck it up no matter the call no matter the situation this is the job, they signed up for so deal with it. This so called "tough Guy" mentality has been one of the major hurdles in law enforcement when it comes to addressing mental health, they simply don't want to talk about issues they may be facing and or dealing with on a personal level because in their mind it makes them seem weak, unable to do their job or could be career damaging down the road. (Dawson, 2019) Law enforcement officers are so afraid of being labeled as weak, emotional, or seen as less masculine by their counterparts that their mental health suffers. This tough guy mentality does not only affect male officers, as more and more women have joined this predominately male profession, they often feel the need to prove themselves to their male counterparts by trying to be one of the guys and ignore their own needs. (Resendez & Malhotra, 2019) This longstanding stigma surrounding mental health in law enforcement may be a challenge to over come with the older generations as its all they know, where the younger generation may be more open to the change. Its up to the leadership of the department to educate officers on the importance of mental health and ensure them that if they do seek counseling or treatment for mental health, it's not going to result in being questioned if they are fit for duty or play a part in any promotions and or assignments later in their career. Needless to say, a change this big isn't going to happen overnight. You can't just change a stigma/ culture that has been around forever overnight. Leadership needs to create a supportive culture that's aimed at both the seasoned officer as well as the new guy and constantly reinforce the importance of prioritizing mental health, utilizing the resources available to them and remind them that being the tough guy won't get you that promotion any faster then being the smart guy that put themselves first.