The document discusses the impact of stress and trauma on coroner investigators and advocates for mindfulness training and practices to address these issues. It provides background on mindfulness training programs that have helped reduce stress and improve health outcomes for law enforcement officers. The document urges the medical examiner-coroner department to implement mindfulness-based resilience training and other wellness programs to support investigators.
The document discusses the impact of stress and trauma on coroner investigators and advocates for mindfulness training and practices to address these issues. It provides background on mindfulness training programs that have helped reduce stress and improve health outcomes for law enforcement officers. The document urges the medical examiner-coroner department to implement mindfulness-based resilience training and other wellness programs to support investigators.
The document discusses the impact of stress and trauma on coroner investigators and advocates for mindfulness training and practices to address these issues. It provides background on mindfulness training programs that have helped reduce stress and improve health outcomes for law enforcement officers. The document urges the medical examiner-coroner department to implement mindfulness-based resilience training and other wellness programs to support investigators.
The document discusses the impact of stress and trauma on coroner investigators and advocates for mindfulness training and practices to address these issues. It provides background on mindfulness training programs that have helped reduce stress and improve health outcomes for law enforcement officers. The document urges the medical examiner-coroner department to implement mindfulness-based resilience training and other wellness programs to support investigators.
Understanding the Effects of Stress and Trauma in the Coroner Investigator
By Kimberley Arnold
LEPSL 500 Critical Issues in Law Enforcement and Public Safety
University of San Diego Professor Erik Fritsvold March 3, 2019 MEMORANDUM
A significant amount of attention has been given to police officers, fire fighters, and paramedics regarding long term post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and its effects on these first responders. Little regard has been paid to the last responder, the Coroner Investigator. When a death investigation occurs, an emphasis is placed on counseling offered to victims of crime and their family members, and how the death has affected their loved ones. However, only a trivial amount of scrutiny has been paid to the impact on Coroner Investigators and their emotional occupational related needs. Coroner Investigators handle traumatic and stressful scenarios while remaining unemotional and “just doing our job”. The purpose of this memorandum is to educate on the impact of stress and propose mindfulness training and practices within the Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner.
Two leading advocates for mindfulness training in law enforcement, Chief Jennifer Tejada of the Emeryville Police Department in California and Lieutenant Richard Goerling of the Hillsboro Police Department in Oregon, co-wrote an article, Mindful Policing- A New Approach to Officer Wellness and Safety Training and Education. They define stress as the body’s psychological and physiological reaction, often called fight or flight response to events, people, situations, or experiences. In the short term stress can be beneficial by helping us focus. However, long term continuous exposure to stressful events, without training to mitigate that stress, can cause cortisol build up and neurobiological phenomenon that lead some to negative mind and body consequences such as reduced life spans, higher risk of sudden cardiac death, higher rates of depression, post traumatic stress disorder, and alcohol use disorder. In 2014, the Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing recognized officer wellness and safety as one of the six priorities for law enforcement in modern policing (Jennifer, T.,Richard, G. 2017).
Wellness and mindfulness for law enforcement professionals is not a new phenomenon. Chief Jennifer Tejada shared in an interview with Dr. Erik Fritsvold, PhD, that Lieutenant Richard Goerling has been paying attention to the psychological needs of law enforcement for nearly 15 years when he implemented Mindfulness-Based Resilience Training (MBRT) for officers (Presentation 6.1) MBRT started as a secular practice in 1979, when Jon Kabat-Zin brought together two methodologies – a collaboration of science, medicine and psychology, coupled with Buddhist meditation. Present day mindfulness gives us full attention in the present moment, increases meta-cognition, and helps us grow beyond the simplicity yet inadequacy of words that become ideals (Tejada, J). MBRT is useful because law enforcement culture dictates and demands that we be stoic, in control, and that we stuff our emotions (Presentation 6.1).
Current implementation of MBRT mindful meditation is seen in the Emeryville Police
Department’s mindful meditation program for officers. Trainer Don Chartland coached eighteen officers through breathing exercises designed to keep the autonomous nervous system in balance. To convince a few skeptical officers, he informed them that his method of breathing exercises are science based. At the end of the eight-week program, there was significant improvement in health outcomes like stress, fatigue, and sleep quality. This practice is offered so their department does not have a similar result of a 2013 study of almost 2,800 white male police officers in Buffalo, New York, which found their average life expectancy to be 22 years shorter than their civilian counterparts. The study’s authors suggest that stress, trauma, obesity, shift work, and exposure to toxic chemicals might all contribute to the early deaths (Yeoman, B. 2017). Within the realm of MBRT, the Death Investigation Academy offers a course, Recognizing and Combating Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS), to Coroner personnel and first responders. “The burden of dealing with tragedies associated with the day-to-day duties of police officers, coroners, and medicolegal death investigators, often remains unspoken and follows the officers into their off-duty and personal lives. These unresolved and un-dealt with feelings will lead an officer or investigator to suffer a form of PTSD called ‘Secondary PTSD’ or compassion fatigue. Failure to recognize and provide an acceptable outlet for the disappointment and frustration felt by officers and investigators at the end of their shifts can lead to self-destructive behavior which could result in loss of job, marriage, and even your life” (Death Investigation Academy).
An added element within law enforcement agencies, the Crime Scene Investigator (CSI) in which Coroner Investigator strongly applies, occupies a uniquely stressful position. They are the closest to the crime scene, and they occupy the physical location of the investigation for far longer than the traditional law enforcement officer. The CSI occupies the crime scene for a lengthy period of time and interacts closely with all of the elements of the crime scene, including the victims and the weapons. This intimate interaction with the various components of the crime scene may engender far more stress for the CSI than that which was experienced by the officers who discovered and secured the scene. Yet, in many agencies the officers will be required to undergo therapeutic interventions, while the CSI’s will not even have those interventions available to them. The importance of their jobs and the relevance of their work to the effective operations of the justice system should encourage law enforcement agencies to take the problem of CSI stress seriously and to make every effort to keep their respective investigative units operating in a healthful and efficient manner (Keel, R., Leone M. 2016).
I urge the Department of Medical-Examiner Coroner to be proactive in the well-being of its
employees as the cumulative impact of stress can be harmful and even deadly. I advocate MBRT and STS training be available for all field Investigators, their benefits have been proven. Additional programs such as peer to peer counseling, animal therapy, volunteerism, and healthy habits (nutritional and exercise classes) should be explored. As Coroner Investigators we give so much of ourselves to our department, other law enforcement agencies, the judicial system, and the decedent’s families. It’s time we gave back to ourselves. References
Keel, R., Leone M. Occupational Stress and the Crime Scene Investigator. Journal of Law and Criminal Justice June 2016, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 63-74 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/bb24/ad03882585aaa2aeeb9d4749432d74c05f90.pdf
Jennifer Tejada and Richard Goerling, “Mindful Policing- A New Approach to Officer Wellness and Safety Training and Education,”The Police Chief (November 2017): 48-51. https://learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/5c2103143e6a3/156676 9?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27M6_M indful_Policing.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=A WS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20190302T093923Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=ho st&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIBGJ7RCS23L3LEJQ%2F20190 302%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=c1da96037b43613149e26 265bd88619ade1f909fbb29ddacad86933c2f88b177
Presentation 6.1: Spotlight Interview-Mindfulness and Policework (26:32) . Critical Issues in
Law Enforcement and Public Safety with Erik Fritsvold and Chief Jennifer Tejada.
Tejada, J.(n.d) Mindful Leadership. National Police Foundation. Advancing Policing Through Innovation and Science. https://www.policefoundation.org/mindful-leadership/
Yeoman, B. (2017, June 14). Mindful Policing: The Future of Force Barry Yeoman. Mindful healthy mind, healthy life. https://www.mindful.org/mindful-policing-the-future-of-force/
