A new program taught by a psychologist with 40-plus years of experience is teaching people what to watch for if a law enforcement officer, first responder or veteran is considering suicide.
Stephen Wakschal teaches the “ConQueR Suicide” program in a day-long class, his most recent hosted by the Recovery Centers of America at Raritan Bay last Friday.
“This program is based on the premise of reaching in, that sometimes asking to reach out doesn’t work as well as reaching in,” he said. “So we teach individuals to be responsible for the person next to them, whether that’s in a cubicle or in a police car, wherever it may be.”
Wakschal said in most years, more law enforcement officers die by suicide than die in the line of duty. He said there are significant factors that contribute to this, including the “police officer’s paradox” of struggling to separate traumatic job-related experiences from his or her day-to-day lives.
“That sharing part about coming home and talking about what they saw,” he said, “[officers] really don’t do it. So that gets kept in, and then there’s the isolation piece of it that comes with it. So they tend to be hyper-vigilant. If they go out to eat and they’re at a restaurant, they’ll sit with their back to the wall, looking at the door and scanning constantly.”
Wakschal said the next group taking his course are 9/11 responders.
