With strategic planning, wellness programs can help officers reduce their risk of negative physical and mental health outcomes, including early death, injuries and illnesses, obesity, heart attacks, and sleep disorders.¹

Many law enforcement leaders are finding innovative ways to create cultures of wellness and encourage officers to participate in wellness programs.² Building upon these advancements in the field, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP)—in partnership with the Education Development Center, Inc. and the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance—launched the Officer Safety and Wellness (OSW) Learning Collaborative. The learning collaborative met monthly to allow law enforcement leaders and officers to learn from experts and each other about implementing and sustaining comprehensive wellness programs, policies, and services designed to meet their agencies’ needs.

Commitment and dedication from agency leadership is one of the driving forces of success in the implementation of any program. Therefore, to obtain buy-in and ensure their efforts would be supported, participating agencies identified a team of representatives with an agency-supported role in implementing OSW programs. All 18 teams included command staff who could bring content to agency leadership to make decisions and changes as needed and identified throughout the learning collaborative.

Each monthly session encouraged productive conversations among peers and involved a subject matter expert who presented and facilitated a discussion around topics the group determined to be most necessary and relevant.

The following topics were covered over the course of the learning collaborative:

• • • Critical Incident Stress Response
    • Nutrition and Physical Health
    • Resilience and Burnout
    • Mental Health and Suicide Prevention
    • Mentorship
    • Financial Literacy
    • Preparing for Retirement
    • Sustainability of Efforts

The IACP’s Officer Health and Wellness Agency Assessment Tool and Action Planning Roadmap served as a guide for the agencies to perform self-assessments to identify strengths and areas in need of improvement.³ A key step of the action planning roadmap is helping agencies understand how they can receive support from their communities, local governments, families of the officers, and fellow agencies that have developed these programs. Combining a tangible tool with the support and knowledge of their peers ultimately helped collaborative members develop both short- and long-term action steps to improve their OSW programming. The impact of goal setting and action planning using the assessment tool was made clear as the learning collaborative moved forward. Halfway through the sessions, approximately 28 percent of the participants indicated that they had already made changes to their agency’s OSW programming as a direct result of the learning collaborative, with another 50 percent planning to do so.

The examples below describe just a few of the innovative approaches discussed by agencies to improve officer wellness. These directly fit into two steps of the action planning roadmap—involving the community and the importance of building an organizational culture of wellness through leadership.

• • • Nutrition and physical health. When discussing physical health, nutrition was a common challenge among most departments. With shift work and the nature of the job, eating healthy can require more thought and effort. One department partnered with a local meal prep company to have healthy meals prepared and delivered to the station for officers. This provided some flexibility and convenience for those who were interested in taking advantage of the services.
    • Community partners. Involving the community with officer wellness and partnering with local businesses was a common trend throughout this project. One agency started a comprehensive wellness program that included partnering with several businesses in their community. Yoga, acupuncture, massage, and a variety of other forms of wellness were incorporated into this program. Local businesses worked with the agency to provide services for the officers and assist in measuring the improvements in their health during the pilot phase of the agency’s program.
    • Program leadership and engagement. One challenge departments faced was implementing and sustaining a wellness program through more than just one “champion” or assigned officer. Formal and informal mentorship within all ranks were found to be successful ways to keep officers in a positive mindset, gain their participation in wellness activities, and sustain these programs. Obtaining buy-in and sustaining a culture of wellness were more easily implemented when leaders were mentored on how best to take action and change the department’s culture. Overall, having open lines of communication, strong, positive mentorship, and camaraderie around wellness efforts made a major impact.

Another key takeaway of the learning collaborative was the value of networking with peers and developing lasting partnerships. Despite the challenges that came with the virtual world, the learning collaborative fostered connections that would have been very unlikely without it. Over 62.5 percent of the participants stated they reached out to a peer from the group outside of the meeting times, which involved sharing resources, asking questions, and learning about each other’s OSW programming. The participating agencies shared policy recommendations, contact information, lessons learned, and other tools that helped everyone in their wellness efforts. The teamwork and relationships that were built during the collaboration gave everyone access to a vast network of other officers and police leaders around the United States.

By encouraging this collaboration, the IACP has had a positive impact on the culture and scope of policing through facilitating necessary conversations and encouraging agencies to address officer safety and wellness concerns. In fact, many of the participants are already practicing this. Approximately 50 percent of the participants have shared their knowledge with both internal and external members of the program and 25 percent are sharing with others in the group.

Officer wellness, mental health, and the difficult conversations that often go along with them sometimes receive pushback and hesitancy within the profession. It takes courage to speak up and strength to speak out about wellness needs. The learning collaborative gave law enforcement professionals the chance to be vulnerable and productive among their peers. Another session of the learning collaborative is taking place throughout 2022 with 30 agencies participating. The IACP is dedicated to continuing this work and motivating officers and command staff alike, to form productive and positive relationships with peers across the world.d

Notes:

¹Kuhns, Joseph B, Edward E Maguire, and Nancy R Leach, “Health, Safety, and Wellness Program Case Studies in Law Enforcement,” October 27, 2015.

²Police Executive Research Forum, “Promising Strategies for Strengthening Police Department Wellness Programs: Findings and Recommendations from the Officer Safety and Wellness Technical Assistance Project,” Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 2021.

³International Association of Chiefs of Police, “Officer Health and Wellness Agency Assessment Tool and Action Planning Roadmap,” 2021.