After Sheriff Berdnik's death, NJ officials push mental health resources for law enforcement

It is a troubling but true statistic that police officers and firefighters are more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty, research shows. Even with the resources available today, the stigma around asking for help is still there.

In the wake of Passaic County Sheriff Richard Berdnik's death, Gov. Phil Murphy and other state and local officials have emphasized the mental health resources that are available for law enforcement officers and first responders in New Jersey such as the Cop2Cop program.

The Cop2Cop program was established in 1998 after a series of police suicides. It created a statewide hotline for law enforcement officers and their families, staffed by both licensed clinicians and retired police officers from all areas and levels of law enforcement.

According to its website, the program has become essential for law enforcement officers and helped to avert over 300 suicides during its first 20 years of existence.

Police officers can reach out to the Cop2Cop 24/7 hotline and speak confidentially to a fellow officer who can provide them with additional resources and treatment if necessary.

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Law enforcement officers who are members of the New Jersey State PBA can also reach out to the PBA's Peer Response Team, which is comprised of 18 law enforcement officers and eight mental health clinicians who specialize in the mental health of first responders. The Peer Response Team's services are also available 24/7 to PBA members.

"Sometimes it could be just that you need a like-minded person that has been down the same road just to talk to. Maybe you are looking for therapy to work out some issues or vent," said the team's coordinator Luke Sciallo. "As a law enforcement officer we're supposed to be the ones to fix things and then you have officers who have to find their own way to process or deal with it."

There is also an international hotline called Copline that is similarly staffed with retired officers and can be reached 24/7.

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These lines are not strictly suicide hotlines. Law enforcement personnel can call to talk about anything from personal issues to mental health, substance abuse, or a critical incident on or off the job.

Additionally, many police departments have employee assistance programs through their town, union, or police department association that employees can turn to for help.

The resources extend beyond law enforcement officers to EMS, firefighters and military as well.

For example, St. Clare's Hospital in Denville recently appointed North Jersey's first EMS mental health resilience officer, Corinne Flammer, whose job is to work closely with first responders, implementing programs and supporting them during difficult days.

"We see some very difficult things and seeing that every day can definitely start to affect your own mental health," said Flammer.

St. Clare's also offers comprehensive mental health services, including psychiatric emergency services, which are available to the public and, by extension, to police officers as well.

"When you're not OK, that's OK. There is help available if you need it. If you can't pull yourself back up, there are plenty of us surrounding you," said Sciallo. "We want to break that stigma. It is OK to ask for help."

Passaic County sheriff Undersheriff Gary Giardina sworn in as Passaic County acting sheriff

24/7 resources:

• Cop2Cop: 1-866-267-2267

• Copline: 1-800-267-5463

• National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: 988

• International Association of Firefighters PTSD and Mental Health Hotline: 855-977-5136

• Veterans Crisis Line: dial 988 and press one

Erasing the stigma

The stigma around asking for help, especially among first responders and law enforcement officers, has existed for a long time.

One study from the Ruderman Family Foundation published in 2018 found that firefighters and police officers were more likely to die from suicide than in the line of duty.

Another study, published in 2020, found that law enforcement workers are "69% more likely to die of suicide in the United States compared to approximately 1.4 million total employed decedents" in the National Occupational Mortality Surveillance System's database.

"If you go back and do some research, you'll see that you had a high number of officers die by suicide, and you'll see that there were more that took their lives than that died in the line of duty in the typical way," said Brian Higgins, professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and former chief of Bergen County Police. "Really, if it's been the job and what the officers do that has created this mental health crisis which brings them to suicide, then that is a job-related loss as well."

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According to Higgins, it all comes down to the agency creating an environment where cops feel safe and comfortable reaching out to the resources that are available to them.

First and foremost, the stigma around asking for help needs to be erased.

Another thing that can be done according to Higgins is creating basic standards and creating mandatory and routine wellness checks on officers, similar to the protocol that an officer goes through after being involved in a shooting.

"Those are the extreme," Higgins said. "But there are so many things that cops see and do every day that affect their psyche that don't rise to the level of an officer involved shooting."

After a tough call, Flammer opens a line of communication with her first responders, allowing them to know that support is available if they need it. Then she'll follow up, get more details, and talk it out with them a couple of days later.

First responders work in high-stress environments and are the first line of help on the worst days of people's lives. They may get used to seeing things that other people would find hard to see, but the effects of this can build up over time and effect their health and well-being.

"You see bad things, and you see good things too, but you're expected to put a Band-Aid on the bad things ... and you have to learn how to process that on your own," said Sciallo.

According to Sciallo, that stigma is still there and it may always be there, but it does not have to be.

"However you are feeling, whether it is good, bad, or indifferent, it's OK. It's just a matter of how you deal with those feelings before you get to a point where it can become toxic or destructive," Sciallo said. "There are a menu of options and resources out there for whatever you need."

Tips to help mental health

There are things that first responders can do to support their mental health, Flammer said.

"It may sound funny, but the tips your parents gave you as a kid can help even in extreme circumstances," she said.

• Get enough sleep

• Take a walk outside

• Get good nutrition

• Build a support network and talk to your trusted peers

• Participate in physical activity

• Talk out the things that hurt, it is OK

"These stressful things, they stay with us. They get stuck in our heads and they rummage around and doing these other things like physical activity or good nutrition, good sleep, they take those difficult incidents from kind of just bounding around in your brain and they help your brain work through the stress," said Flammer.

She also suggested that if stress from an incident lasts longer than 30 days to seek professional help, as it may be post-traumatic stress.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ mental health resources available for police after Berdnik death