Counseling center opens with goal of offering peace to safety forces

Counseling center opens with goal of offering peace to safety forces
Idea springs from trial of five sheriff's deputies

By Kathy Antoniotti
Beacon Journal staff writer


Published on Tuesday, Aug 03, 2010


Inside the Furnace Street Mission is a place for those who help others to seek respite for themselves.

The Summit County Chaplaincy Center for safety forces will provide confidential counseling for stress debriefing after incidents involving on-duty safety personnel, including dispatchers.

Renovations began about 18 months ago, said the Rev. Bob Denton, chaplain for the Akron Police Department and executive director of Victim Assistance.

The need for the center is apparent by the escalation in counseling requests from last year to this year, he said.

''There were about 90 sessions last year and 71 sessions just since the first of this year,'' he said.

Most memorable in Denton's mind
are the officers still on the street because they asked for and received help.

''Four officers in the last year are all here because of it. They were going to eat their guns,'' he said.

The idea for the center was born during the trials of five Summit County sheriff's deputies who were accused of contributing to the 2006 death of jail inmate Mark D. McCullaugh Jr.
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