Cops dealing with PTSD face stigma, lack of resources
By Seth Doane
August 17, 2012 7:18 PM
(CBS News) BALTIMORE, Md. - Six people were charged on Friday in what has been described as an "ambush" that killed two sheriff's deputies and wounded two others in Louisiana. The local sheriff said his officers were "assassinated."
Across the country, there's growing concern for police involved in shootings, even when they are not physically hurt. Many suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but few get help dealing with it.
As a police officer, Rick Willard thought he had seen it all until he responded to a call in a Baltimore neighborhood one night in 2005.
"He was about 20 yards from me and pulled his gun out and said, 'I'm going to kill you,' and started shooting," Willard recalled to CBS News.
The two began to exchange gunfire. Willard shot the suspect and watched the man die. He developed PTSD.
Willard said he felt driven to commit suicide and got as close as "a gun in my mouth in a bath tub." He doesn't know how he got to that point.
"You just feel like there's nothing left," he said sadly.
Before he pulled the trigger, Willard picked up the phone and called a fellow cop who convinced him not to do it. Despite these brushes with death, Willard said the Baltimore police department never offered him any psychological help.
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Does anyone see the connection
ReplyDeletebetween the increase in police,
service members, and veteran suicides?
Can it be that prevalence of PTSD in the younger people who have not yet learned to use "shields" to protect themselves from these sorts of unfamiliar, extreme trauma could be a hallmark of many murders?
NEVER MIND BLOODY WOUNDS, JUST WOUNDS OF THE PSYCHE
Good comment. There are different kinds of PTSD and cops share the same type veterans end up with for two reasons. The number of exposures to traumatic events along with the intensity of them but topped off with the fact most of the time, they have to respond with violence as well. They are not just survivors of the trauma, they were part of it. Someday the rest of the experts will catch up to what was understood 40 years ago.
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