Sgt. Renee Plumb is a 26-year veteran of the police department.  Sgt. Plumb currently serves as the liaison with the Prince George’s County Police Department, Psychological Services Division in Maryland, which is responsible for the mental health of employees, retirees, and their immediate family members.  She also coordinates the department's Peer Support Program, where she helps to train police officers on mental health/wellness topics and connect them with behavioral health services. 

Join me for a conversation with Sgt. Plumb as she describes the unique stressors and challenges facing the law enforcement community.  She candidly describes the work that police officers do on a daily basis, emphasizes the resiliency of police officers, and how the job affects their daily lives.  Sgt. Plumb provides a roadmap of what it looks like to be a culturally competent clinician and how therapists can be a resource for the law enforcement community.   

In this Episode:

Prince George’s County Police Department

https://www.princegeorgescountymd.gov/345/Police

Blue Help:  Honoring the Service of Law Enforcement Officers Who Died by Suicide

https://bluehelp.org

Rate, review, and subscribe to this podcast to help get the word out.  We thank you for your support!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Craig is a career firefighter and Coordinator of the Hanover County, Virginia Fire & EMS Peer Support Team. Craig is a career firefighter and medic, who has been in Hanover County for the past 14 years. Prior to that, he volunteered in Chesterfield County, Virginia and has been in the field for over 20 years. More recently, Craig has been devoting his time and effort to help those in the Fire Service get support from their peers and access to mental health services when needed. He speaks openly about the firefighting profession and what mental health clinicians need to know. He is working to build bridges to connect clinicians with peer support and open avenues to help therapists work with firefighters and paramedics effectively.  

In this Episode

Hanover County Fire-EMS

https://www.hanovercounty.gov/297/Fire-EMS

Hanover Professional Firefighters, Local 4202

http://www.hanoverprofirefighters.org/index.cfm

EMS Improv

https://www.emsimprov.com/

Canine Companions for Independence

https://www.cci.org/

Rate, review, and subscribe to this podcast to help get the word out. We thank you for your support.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We are thrilled to welcome Sherri Martin to the podcast who serves as the National Director of Wellness Services for the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), the largest representative organization of law enforcement officers in the United States, with over 355,000 members. A career police officer, Sherri has extensive experience in crisis negotiation and intervention, serving most of her law enforcement career as a patrol supervisor and lead crisis negotiator. While a member of the Charleston Police Department in South Carolina, where she served the bulk of her career, she achieved the rank of Lieutenant, and was responsible for the development of programs in the areas of officer wellness and crisis intervention within the community. 

Sherri earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from the University of North Carolina and a Master of Arts degree in Clinical Counseling Psychology from the Citadel, where she was chosen by faculty to receive the J. Patrick Leverett Award presented to the most outstanding graduate student in the Psychology program. Additionally, Sherri has experience in clinical therapy, having worked with clients suffering from PTSD and Clinical Depression during research conducted at Ralph H. Johnston Veterans Affairs Hospital in South Carolina. She is licensed as a Professional Counselor Associate in the State of Connecticut. While pursuing a Postgraduate Certificate in Forensic Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Sherri led the Fraternal Order of Police National Officer Wellness Committee in a landmark survey of police officers on topics focused on mental wellness. Some of many accomplishments focus on critical stress, stigma, and use of wellness services for police officers.

In this Episode

International Association of Chiefs of Police

https://www.theiacp.org

See this article in which Sherry discusses the police officer suicide epidemic:

https://lris.com/2019/10/22/police-suicide-epidemic-spurs-soul-searching-you-may-love-the-job-the-job-will-never-love-you/

Rate, review, and subscribe to this podcast to help get the word out. We thank you for your support.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We are excited to welcome Terry Trueblood to the Therapy Café® Podcast. Terry is a 30-year police veteran, with a background as a chief diver in an undercover water investigation unit, medic, certified trainer, and an accomplished author of law enforcement training materials. 

Join us for a lively conversation with Terry as he tells it like it is and gives us a first-hand view of the life of a law enforcement officer. What Terry so candidly describes is the mental mindset, training, and personality characteristics of the police officer, the societal pressures and interpersonal dynamics that impact upon them, and what they experience on the job. This information can be helpful when working with law enforcement in the mental health setting and understanding the different stresses and challenges they face.

In this Episode

Fraternal Order of Police

https://www.fop.net/

Rate, review, and subscribe to this podcast to help get the word out. We thank you for your support.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mike Wells is a 14-year veteran career firefighter working in Prince Georges County, Maryland. His love of the fire service began as a young boy riding along with his dad, a former volunteer captain in their hometown of Wallingford, CT, where Mike later became a Junior Volunteer. Moving for college to College Park, MD, Mike joined College Park Volunteer Fire Department as part of the live-in program while taking classes before coming to work for PGFD full-time. In 2016, Mike was one of the founders of PGFD’s labor union’s peer support team. He has served as coordinator for the program and has been a Master Instructor for the IAFF’s Peer Support Program since 2018, teaching and consulting internationally. Through the IAFF, Mike has deployed across the United States following natural disasters and line of duty deaths, supporting his brothers and sisters of the fire service in their time of need. Currently, Mike has broadened his work beyond the IAFF Local, working full-time for PGFD to ensure that the peer support program and behavioral health are accessible to all of its 3,000 members.

In this Episode:

IAFF Local 1619 Peer Support Team website

https://www.pgfdpeersupport.org

International Association of Firefighters (IAFF), Behavioral Health Program

https://www.iaff.org/behavioral-health/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.