“Mental health is as important as physical health, and the Department of Justice is committed to investing in mental health and wellness programs that help keep our nation’s law enforcement healthy and safe.” Justice.Gov (see below)
COPS Grant Info
As the leading community policing experts at the U.S. Department of Justice, over $14 billion has been invested in community policing since Congress established the office in 1994.
RITE continues to publish upcoming Grants, provide helpful links like our 30-page Training overview (below), and once it is made public, will provide COPS Grant Award List (see link below).
Bookmark us to learn about funding opportunities, and plan to apply for funding to support your community policing and public safety efforts the beginning of each year.
The Healthy Officer
Most start their police career excited, full of life, loving the job. Over time, when officers experience trauma, work pressures, and even home challenges that enthusiasm can diminish. Some officers even become Angry at the job and anyone in their path.
Nothing good happens in Law Enforcement carrying Anger on your sleeve. Holding on to ANGER for long periods of time only hurts the person that is angry. Asking for mental health is surely needed, but not all officers will take that step to ask.
The Angry Officer
‘The ANGRY ticking time-bomb cop’ that everyone in the agency knows needs mental health, are most often the officers that will say…. I’m Fine… I’m Ok, but really, they need help!
When an officer says, “I’m fine,” but shows signs of distress, it is often a cry for mental help.
Mental Health issues can create a hostile work environment including:
- Negative banter and Spreading rumors
- Unnecessarily ramping up the call
- Out of control Anger leads to Block Out
- Doing or saying unwarrented comments
Mental Wellness Hammer
“If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.” ~ Abraham Maslow
Various Mental Wellness Tools are needed to help officers understand where they are emotionally, especially under pressure. The first step is Awareness. RITE Tools help officers become Aware of their negative emotions, particularly on a call or engaging with the community.
RITE’s Emotional Ladder helps Officers Check-in…
“Where am I Today, on the Mental Wellness Ladder?”
When officers are given not just one, but multiple Mental Wellness Tools, they can help themselves heal from career cumulative traumatic stress. Officers learn where they spend most of their day, towards the Top or Bottom of the Ladder.
- Do I LOVE my job… most of the time?
- Or am I FRUSTRATED… most of the time?
Checking in with your emotions, is the first step towards personal mental health and wellness.
Starting Point
Giving officers a starting point to address personal mental wellness is the key to healing. Departments that care about officer wellness give their employees RITE Wellness Training and Tools.
Officer Wellness Ladder Posters work great in:
- Roll Call Rooms
- Employee break rooms
- Officer locker rooms
- Report Writing Areas
RITE’s Visual Tools remind officers to ‘check in’ with their own Mental Health and Wellness.
Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act (LEMHWA)
Since 2017, The Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, (COPS), has provided grants to focus on helping police officers across the nation address mental health and officer wellness.
Here are links law enforcement agencies should save to go after grants, and see who was awarded.
RITE Academy plays a pivotal role with the LEMHWA Program in providing police agencies the necessary wellness tools that help officers recognize the need for mental health.
Click to read Press Release below
RITE gives peer support teams the tools they need to help every employee in the agency, (sworn and non-sworn).
Get RITE’s Detailed 30-Page PDF for Grant
Attention GRANT WRITERS: We’ve put everything you need into this 30 page overview. document. Use any or all of it to help you.
RITE Stats
Since 2015, RITE Academy has trained over 1200 agencies on Officer Wellness, Emotional Intelligence, and De-escalation Communication, while helping to build those peer support groups.
Over 970 RITE Trainers have been certified, and we’ve given out more than 550,000 RITE Wellness Tools for employees, that helped agencies reduce their use-of-force incidents by 65%, while retaining officers.
RITE Supports LEMHWA
Agencies that provide Mental Wellness encourages:
- Officer Wellness Tools for every officer
- Peer Support Groups
- Encourage Mental Health Counseling
- Talk Openly about Suicide Prevention
- CIT debriefing to seek mental health after traumatic calls
RITE Training and Tools meet the goals of the 2017 LEMHWA, and we support the Department of Justice and the Administration’s commitment to improving mental health for all law enforcement. RITE is firmly committed to supporting the mental health of those who serve our communities so that they can best fulfill their duties to protect the public.
