National Police Association Podcast #101 with Sgt. John Allovio (Ret.), General Partner with Safe Call Now, a crisis referral service for first responders and families
National Police Association Podcast #101 with Sgt. John Allovio (Ret.), General Partner with Safe Call Now, a crisis referral service for first responders and families
QUOTES
03:36 "Officers, in their own communities, go through the same mental anguish and stress that any military veteran would have gone through."
07:35 "Cities only saw PTSD or emotional problems created by the law enforcement job as a liability issue, which meant if you discussed it with cities, there's the good possibility, to lessen liability, that they would terminate you."
14:11 "Our objective is to stabilize and help first responders become better employees, better officers for the community, better husbands or wives for their families."
17:56 "We stress confidentiality with Safe Call Now so that those folks that we are dealing with, those folks that are in the worst need, don't have to worry about being terminated as a benefit of getting themselves well."
20:19 "You can never forget the dispatchers because I really think, in some ways, they have the worst end of their mental health."
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SUMMARY
In this episode of the National Police Association Podcast, Sgt. Betsy Smith interviews Sgt. John Allovio (Ret.), General Partner with Safe Call Now, a crisis referral service for first responders and families. The levels of PTSD of officers are comparable to that of veterans and there is a need to address it healthily and productively. Safe Call Now helps provide this service by referring officers in need to the appropriate facilities where they are not seen as liabilities but as patients who are in desperate need of assistance.
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HIGHLIGHTS
02:43 Police officers go through the same PTSD as soldiers in the field
07:15 "Choir practice" caused severe alcoholism within police ranks
10:16 Safe Call Now aims to make better officers and their immediate families
16:48 Addiction facilities need to handle first responders in a particular way
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