by J.C. Adams and John Colburn, PhD

As our Cloud 9 team has worked with law enforcement to help address the needs of citizens they encounter with mental illness, we’ve become very familiar with some of the mental health issues these first responders themselves face in the line of duty.  In both urban and rural areas, law enforcement officers routinely encounter disturbing situations such as homicides, domestic violence, child abuse, accident fatalities, and other extremes.  In fact, police officers experience, on average, over three traumatic events for every six months of service.

Impact of high rate of trauma

As a result of these encounters:

• Law enforcement officers suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) rates five times more than in the general population2
• Law enforcement officer suffer the highest rates of suicide of any profession.

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Providing help at their fingertips

We must do more to support law enforcement as we work to change the culture of policing.  Using the Cloud 9 app, first responders and law enforcement personnel will be able to securely and confidentially connect with police peer support teams, mental health clinicians, and other resources to deal with the challenges facing them.  

Innovation with Compassion

Cloud 9 understands that mental health problems affect most people at some point in their life, and believes that compassionate care should be available to everyone.  We believe we can be part of the solution to the complex cultural problems we face today.  We are intentional about “Connection” being the primary role of our company.  Click here to learn how Cloud 9 can help.

1 - International journal of emergency mental health: PTSD Symptoms Among Police Officers: Associations With Frequency, Recency, And Types Of Traumatic Events

2 - Occupational Health & Safety: Mental Health and First Responders: How Their Jobs Can Cause More than Just Stress:

3 - Addiction Center: New Study Shows Police at Highest Risk for Suicide of Any Profession

#firstresponders, #telehealth, #suicideprevention

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