The Power of Mindfulness in Law Enforcement

Written by Eileen Joan Desmond

Law enforcement professionals often provide help to citizens. Unfortunately, officers also need help due to the situations they experience on a daily basis.

Healio News stresses that law enforcement work is associated with physical, psychosocial, and anticipatory stress due to extreme cases, such as child abuse, domestic violence, and homicides. One case alone can be hard to deal with, but these professionals experience repeated exposure to these stressors. To avoid the development of mental illnesses from these cases, Healio News emphasizes that education regarding mental health and effective treatments should be mandatory for law enforcement professionals.

Recognizing the high risk of mental conditions in the industry, institutions are responding by introducing psychology, mental health, and mindfulness practices to law enforcement professionals.

The Rise of Mental Health Education in Law Enforcement
A lot of people aren’t aware about their own mental health needs. As such, education is a crucial element that can help build people’s awareness regarding their mental health.

Given that law enforcers are exposed to multiple traumatic events, experts in psychology and law enforcement recommend that police officers undergo a behavioral health training program to prevent any adverse mental illness. These behavioral health training programs will provide psychoeducation about the risks of the job and give specific tips on how to spot and prevent any mental health issues. This is why there is a need for more professionals with behavioral health training.

The good news is that more law enforcement officers entering the force are being trained in forensic psychology, and they are being more integrated into law enforcement to help officers. Those with a forensic psychology degree are educated in social psychology, psychological testing, and police psychology. While these programs prepare future law enforcement professionals to give input on inmate behavior, analyze violent criminals at large, and support crime victims, they are also able to use their training to aid fellow officers. This is creating a much more open culture in terms of mental health within law enforcement.

Mindfulness Training Creates Better Peacemakers
Mental health education does not only strengthen the well-being of law enforcers, but it can also improve their relations with civilians. These programs open up law enforcement experts to mindfulness and other well-being practices, which can be useful for their personal and professional lives.

A job in law enforcement can be very stressful and even violent. Mindfulness retreats can open up their awareness and strengthen the compassion in their hearts to help them carry out their role as peace builders in the society. Through mindfulness training sessions, police officers, probation officers, and forensic psychologists can better promote peaceful practices. This recognition can strengthen their ability to listen deeply to all parties and to learn how to engage with people from a place of compassion, instead of violence.

A study on the impact of mindfulness training on police officers also demonstrates that mindfulness can improve the sleep quality of law enforcers, which can greatly affect their performance on the job. North American police officers who screened positive for sleep disorders have a high tendency to express anger at work and even incur citizen complaints, thus making mindfulness more important for the public’s well-being, as well as their own. On top of that, the study showed that mindfulness training reduces the psychological distress and mental health symptoms of police officers. This improvement reduces the serious and potentially deadly consequences of unmitigated trauma exposure for both police officers and members of the public.

It's important to teach law enforcers that their own well-being can positively affect the welfare of society. By giving them access to mental health education and mindfulness training, they can learn to demonstrate compassion to themselves and to the citizens that they seek to protect.