Navigating Burnout in Law Enforcement Communities
Yolanda Harper, LCSW, and Cyndi Doyle discuss the impact of burnout in law enforcement officers, spouses, and relationships.
How to Advocate for Police Families after a Traumatic Brain Injury
In this episode of the Code4Couples podcast, host Cyndi Doyle continues the conversation with Joan Van De Greik about the severe financial impacts following her husband’s traumatic brain injury (TBI) sustained in the line of duty. Joan shares the struggles they faced, including mounting medical expenses, navigating insurance and workers’ comp, the importance of disability and life insurance with living benefits, and ultimately starting her business, Fetch Your Wealth.
Joan’s story highlights the necessity of financial planning for law enforcement families facing similar challenges.
The Impact of In The Line of Duty Injuries on Law Enforcement families
There’s an injury to the head on the job. If it’s an open wound, it gets addressed, stapled up, and healed. As time goes on, you or your spouse notices that you’re different.
You’re changing your mood, your drive, your impulsivity and your memory isn’t what it used to be.
You aren’t sure what’s happening.
Despite what looks fine externally, you know something is going on.
Joan Van De Greik shares the story of her husband’s injury and their years of struggle, not only to get the diagnosis, but dismissal and betrayal of the city and the fight for compensation as a work-related injury. Joan’s mission is to educate other law enforcement families and help them to be financially prepared should they experience a career ending injury or line of duty death. This is part one of my interview with Joan as she shares her story of the struggle after the incident.
Indirect Trauma in Law Enforcement Relationships
In a dual first responder home, there are times when first person and vicarious trauma must coexist. We may experience the traumatic incident firsthand and then hear the other person’s view of the same incident when we are home together. While the differing perspectives can be beneficial, it’s not always true. Every person’s reaction to a singular incident is different, and sometimes it can be difficult to remember it. Lisa and James Robinson are a dual first responder couple that have and continue to work through traumas both individually and shared. They share how they stumble through and what they have learned to help and support themselves and each other.
Trauma in Law Enforcement Families
As a couple, we are aware that officers and their families can be impacted by the job. Sometimes, the impact is trauma. Trauma can be direct or indirect. Secondary traumatic stress can impact officers, spouses, children, or even extended family and friends. We need to be aware of the signs and symptoms to help ourselves and those we love. Expert, Melissa Kaiser talks about what to look for and strategies on how to counter the impact.
Communication Struggles in Law Enforcement Couples: How to Handle Shut Out or Shut Down
Shut out and shut down are one of the most common police officer relationship problems I hear about.
