TacMobility

THESE ARE NOT THE SAME THINGS

Here’s the numbers that should be circulating in every command staff meeting in the country: according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ 2022 survey of law enforcement agencies, 60% of all general-purpose agencies offered at least one formal wellness program that year, rising to 93% among larger agencies (100+ FTE).¹ On paper, that looks like an industry that has this handled.

Now here’s the number underneath it. Only 38.2% of those same agencies offered programs actually teaching coping skills to manage trauma — the skills that show up when an officer is sitting in the driveway at 2 a.m. not wanting to walk inside. Even among larger, better-resourced agencies, that number only climbs to 72.5%.¹

Read those two numbers together and you’ll probably feel less optimistic about “how far wellness has come”.

Most agencies have something. Far fewer are teaching the thing that actually changes how an officer’s nervous system handles the job.

A wellness program and a coping-skills program are not the same purchase, and a lot of departments are paying for the first one and assuming they got the second.

Comment PLAYBOOK for the Advanced Peer Support Playbook training with TacMobility and our licensed police counselor Mel Koenen, LMFT

You’ll learn the difference between wellness and resiliency along with new, trauma-informed coping skills and psycho-educational concepts that will leave your peers feeling more supported than they have ever been.

10/20 Virtual Module
11/16-17 Helena, MT
12/14-15 Chandler, AZ

Stress feels like it hits you all at once *but* it actually stacks.

This is the main reason that our burnout recovery training is built around practicing skills that create capacity before you reach your max.

We’re bringing it to Erie County New York on October 27 and Hopewell, New Jersey on October 30.

➡️Comment ERIE or comment HOPEWELL for more information.

December 9–11 in Tempe, AZ, we’re doing it again: the Women in Law Enforcement Performance Summit.

If you’re on the road and want training that treats you like a cop first, get your training request in.

Comment SUMMIT and I’ll send you the details you can forward directly to your admin/training unit. Then send this to the women at your department you want sitting next to you in December.

If you only ever feel wired or numb, nobody ever taught you the third option.

Your nervous system runs on three states. Sympathetic is activated: wired, irritable, ready to argue with a wall. Dorsal vagal is shutdown: numb, flat, checked out. Ventral vagal is the one most people never get taught: calm, present, actually able to connect with the people in front of you.

Understanding which state you’re in isn’t about labeling yourself broken. It’s about knowing which skill to reach for.

If you’re activated, you need something calming. If you’re numb, you need something stimulating. Neither one responds to being told to relax.

Comment GUIDE and I’ll send you the free breakdown of how to recognize your own baseline and what to actually do about it.

We get hired to fix burnout and the first thing we have to fix is the vocabulary.

Wellness is not resiliency, and treating them like the same thing is how agencies end up paying for spa days and still losing people.

Wellness is how you take care of yourself. Time off. Massages. Rest.

Resiliency is the skill set you actually use when a shift goes sideways. It has to be trained. It has to be practiced. It doesn’t show up because the Chief built a gym at the PD.

If your agency has wellness perks but no resiliency training, you have half a program.

Comment TAC365 and I’ll send you our free, year long wellness program for wellness coordinators and peer support.

Anyone can hand out a plaque. That’s the easy part.

Leadership is showing up on the regular Tuesday — the one with no cameras and no ceremony — and asking your people how they’re actually doing.

If that’s not happening at your agency, the plaques don’t mean what you think they do.

Comment LRT to bring train your leaders on the “soft skills” that actually build retention and trust.