Benoit Wellness Consulting: Front Line Resiliency Project

What is moral injury? . Moral injury refers to an injury to an individual's moral conscience and values resulting from an act of perceived moral transgression, which produces profound emotional guilt and shame, and in some cases also a sense of betrayal, anger and profound "moral disorientation".

OSICAN ASK Edmonton Peer Support group is meeting this Sunday Feb. 28th at 4pm. This is a free, confidential and supportive group for any Military/Veteran membe...r, First Responders, Public Service Personnel or Healthcare Personnel. This group is available to anyone in the above services whether you live in the Edmonton area or not. All we ask is that if you are interested in attending, please email [email protected] to ask for an invitation to the group.

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Overidentification. We see this a lot when one becomes a police officer. Training is intense, consuming most of your life, you have less time to be with your family and friends. You may lose old friends and activities because of your job as a police officer. And the longer you are on the job you may see yourself starting to only hang out and trust other police officers. . You become the job. You are a police officer. It’s who you are. You lose your sense of self. Dr Gi...lmartin describes this as the I usta syndrome. Describing things that have been lost from the officers life. The officers identity has been reduced from what it used to be to one thing.... I am a Cop. . So why is this harmful? Functional and healthy human beings need to feel that they have some control over their lives, their sense of self. So, as a police officer if you become more and more invested in your role as a police officer you lose control of your life which leads to emotional vulnerability. This then leads to problems when you can’t control something at work, a transfer, a promotion etc. . If your job becomes your life, and you don’t control your job, then you don’t control your life. If you are unaware of what’s happening feelings of anger, frustration, resentment and overwhelm, to make a few, may arise. . How do you fix it? A lot of it needs to be culturally changed however there are things you can do individually. Make sure you have hobbies, friends and activities outside of work. Your whole circle should not be just police officers. Set goals in fun. Change your language from I am a police officer to I work as a police officer or policing is a job. Understand what you can control. You may not be able to control your job (policies, courts, uniforms, budget, decisions of leadership and procedures) but you CAN control your integrity, your professional, and how well you do your job. Focus on that!