Kansas Police Officer's Widow working to break silence after husband's suicide

KCK sergeant's widow says police departments can't sweep suicide under the rug anymore

KSHB 41 News
By: Sarah Plake
Feb 26, 2019

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — "On April 22, 2015 my late husband, Sgt. Brett Doolittle of the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department, ended his life," Lindsey Doolittle said matter-of-factly.

Facing the reality is what helps her survive.

Doolittle came home that Wednesday evening like a regular day. She parked her car in the back garage.

"That's when I saw my husband. He had ended his life. He had died by depression, but the tool that he used was helium," Doolittle said.

She found Brett in the garage below the house, where he would spend time creating art.

It'll be almost four years since that devastating day.

"I forced myself to come down here. I mean, I live here. I force myself to do the uncomfortable so I can live," said Doolittle.
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Florida First Responders Fighting PTSD Comp

Florida bills could allow first responders to get workers' comp for PTSD

WPTV 5 News

Amy Lipman

December 2, 2017

"I started to withdraw from family, friends," Wallwork said. "Further and further from any social interaction. Hyper vigilance. I was always worried about bad things happening."Wallwork has worked in fire rescue for 28 years. He was diagnosed with PTSD two years ago.

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. - First responders run toward danger, risk their lives and witness tragedy first-hand, but if all of that results in mental distress, they can't get workers' compensation for it under current Florida law.

“We see things that you can only imagine in a movie and then we’re expected to get right back on the truck, go to the next call without time to process it," said Pete Wallwork, who suffers from PTSD as a result of his career as a firefighter.

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Cops dealing with PTSD face stigma, lack of resources

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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Gala to Benefit Veterans and First Responders with PTSD

Gala to Benefit Veterans and First Responders
Operation Warrior Wellness

PTSD:Female police officers focus of study by Smith College

Smith College Grécourt Gate - Northampton,MA,USA
June 12, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



Study: Female Police Officers May Hold the Key To Understanding Gender Differences in PTSD

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. – Gender differences in the intensity and frequency of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may not relate to biology as much as psychology, according to a new study of nearly 300 females – civilians and police officers.

Previous studies have indicated that, in the civilian population, females suffer from the disorder more frequently and more intensely than males, yet studies on military and police officers have not found a difference between the genders.

This study focused just on women – comparing police officers and civilians on several variables including trauma exposure and cumulative PTSD symptoms – and found significantly different patterns of emotion expression within the same gender.

“The good news is that these emotional proclivities probably are not biologically predetermined but rather open to psychosocial influence,” said Nnamdi Pole, Smith College associate professor of psychology and the study’s lead researcher. “As we better understand the causes and consequences of these influences, we may someday be able to eliminate – or reduce – PTSD symptoms in civilian women.”
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http://www.smith.edu/newsoffice/releases/NewsOffice09-031.html

Program helps police, firefighters cope with trauma

"Imagine just lying in bed and you can smell the crime scene 10 years later. Or look in the mirror and see a dead person who isn't there. These are symptoms people really have."

Healing the badge: Program helps police, firefighters cope with trauma
By John Simerman
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 05/31/2009 02:18:35 PM PDT
He smiles now, with earnest, gleaming eyes, but Joseph Banuelos easily recalls standing in his yard two years ago, shooting rounds into the grass and thrusting a gun in his mouth.

A state drug agent who had worked in West Contra Costa, buying undercover on the same Richmond streets where he grew up, Banuelos was arrested twice over a weekend for driving drunk, he said. A year earlier, he had blown a 0.26 on a breathalyzer — more than three times the legal limit.

He had screwed up at work and his days as a law enforcement official would soon end. Worse, the images of past calls haunted him:

Turning a corner and seeing a 16-year-old boy who had shot himself in the head "looking at me, and as God is my witness I thought I heard him say, 'Mom, please help.'"‰"

The bullet that hit a 12-year-old, with Banuelos unable to move as rifle shots flew and the father pleaded for help as the boy bled out in his arms.

That triple murder-suicide in Novato.
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http://www.mercurynews.com/crime/ci_12490591?nclick_check=1

Australia: PTSD and Police

Police in trauma hot seat - officers leaving will illness
Nicole Cox, police reporter

May 08, 2009 10:00pm
THE trauma of police work in WA has forced hundreds of officers to quit with illnesses similar to soldiers serving in combat zones.

WA Police figures reveal that in the past decade 377 officers and staff have retired on grounds of ill-health after attending horrific homicides, suicides, road crashes and life-threatening situations.

Of those, 219 quit or were forced to retire because of psychological conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression, while 126 suffered physical injury.

WA Police would not reveal how many serving officers were now undergoing treatment for work-related post-traumatic stress.

Experts say the strain of relentless police work and exhausting hours has the same impact as working in a war zone.

Post-traumatic stress disorder expert David Mutton told The Sunday Times the psychological effects of policing were similar to those experienced by soldiers.

``The incidents that affect police are ones where they are put in a situation of extreme danger ... or ones that are overwhelmingly gruesome -- multiple fatalities and nasty homicides,'' Mr Mutton said.

``It's a combination of danger, stress, grief and the underlying desire by police to control situations.
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Police in trauma hot seat

Stress takes toll on police officers' mental and physical health

Stress takes toll on police officers' mental and physical health
By Anxiety Insights

posted Monday, 29 September 2008

Policing is dangerous work, and the danger lurks not just on the streets.

The pressures of law enforcement put officers at risk for high blood pressure, insomnia, increased levels of destructive stress hormones, heart problems, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicide, John M. Violanti, PhD, research associate professor at the University at Buffalo Department of Social and Preventive Medicine in the School of Public Health and Health Professions and colleagues have found through a decade of studies of police officers.

More than 400 police officers have participated in the study to date, with the researchers aiming for 500. The clinical examination involves questionnaires on lifestyle and psychological factors such as depression and PTSD, in addition to measures of bone density and body composition, ultrasounds of brachial and carotid arteries, salivary cortisol samples and blood samples. The officers also wear a small electronic device to measure the quantity and quality of sleep throughout a typical police shift cycle.

Results from Violanti's pilot studies have shown, among other findings, that officers over age 40 had a higher 10-year risk of a coronary event compared to average national standards; 72 percent of female officers and 43 percent of male officers, had higher-than-recommended cholesterol levels; and police officers as a group had higher-than-average pulse rates and diastolic blood pressure.

"Policing is a psychologically stressful work environment filled with danger, high demands, ambiguity in work encounters, human misery and exposure to death," said Violanti, a 23-year veteran of the New York State Police. "We anticipate that data from this research will lead to police-department-centered interventions to reduce the risk of disease in this stressful occupation."
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