In Pursuit of Mental Wellness in the First Responder Community: 'It's about saving lives'

[Michael Jack]

This book is a roadmap for the mental health journey that can serve as a guide for other first responder organizations to follow

It’s amazing what can be accomplished when lives hang in the balance.

And three OPP officers dying by suicide in just three weeks back in 2018 certainly created a sense of urgency that led to the Ontario Provincial Police Association creating Encompas, a “wraparound” mental health service, that is now quite literally saving lives.

A recently-released book written by career OPP officer Rob Jamieson, with Laurie Stephens, details how a team of people from the OPPA, OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique and Ontario Premier Doug Ford worked together to bring his vision to fruition while he was serving as OPPA president – a role he held from 2015 to 2020.

However, In Pursuit of Mental Wellness in the First Responder Community is not simply a love letter to the revolutionary Encompas program.

It is a handbook that every new recruit, current service member, retiree and their family members should read.

This book can be used as a roadmap of sorts for first responder mental health advocacy.

And it can serve as a guide for other first responder organizations to follow.

As Jamieson writes on the very first page, “This book is about saving lives.”

Interestingly, while the relationship between police commissioners, or police chiefs, and heads of a police union can often be adversarial, Jamieson told the Toronto Sun that Carrique reached out to him immediately after becoming commissioner in 2019 and they began working together to address the mental health crisis.

The OPP Commissioner even wrote the foreword in his book.

“Rob’s legacy of leadership is Encompas and the lives changed and saved as a result of this visionary and game-changing approach to caring for our members and their families,” Carrique writes.

Despite his many accomplishments in life, Jamieson is quite content if it turns out Encompas is the one he is ultimately remembered for.

Having struggled with occupational stress himself during his policing career, he had experienced some of the barriers those who needed help had to overcome. So, Jamieson, with the OPPA team, knew people needed to be able to access help immediately, even when they weren’t sure what help they needed. They needed to be put in touch with trauma-informed people and support services. And they shouldn’t have to worry about the cost – to their career or their finances.

“People shouldn’t have to decide between groceries and psychological support,” Jamieson said.

His goal at the outset was to “address the stigma and the debilitating effects of mental illness within the OPP,” and to “effect change” so that members – uniformed and civilian – and their loved ones would have “the intervention and supports they needed.”

“The culmination of that effort is Encompas, a one-stop approach to mental healthcare that currently provides 16,000 OPPA members and their families with access to confidential, effective, and safe mental health supports and services, 24/7, 365 days a year,” Jamieson explains in his book.

He said the program, which provides unlimited coverage for counselling or even residential treatment and is constantly evolving, is “one of the most integrated and comprehensive” first responder programs in Canada.

The book includes hard-hitting personal stories from an OPP widow, officers and spouses who, along with many others, inspired the creation of Encompas, and can now turn to the program and get the psychological supports they require.

Jamieson hopes those personal stories help other members, and retirees, to see that it’s okay to ask for help – because mental health issues in the First Responder Community are deeply impactful.

It’s also why he shares some of his own struggles in the book and admits the work to bring Encompas online took such a toll on him that he once again needed to seek help.

“I’m in great shape today and I’m moving forward mentally – because I was able to access the support I needed,” Jamieson said.

He said many members are now also turning to Encompas as a preventive measure, rather than waiting until they are in crisis, and they are receiving ongoing support to maintain their mental health – all of which keeps officers and civilians at work, supports members while they are out of the workplace, and supports members on their return to the workplace.

And not content to just talk the talk, Jamieson is also walking the walk by donating all proceeds of his book to three first responder support organizations – Boots On The Ground, Canada Beyond The Blue and SOLE (Survivors Of Law Enforcement Ontario).

In Pursuit of Mental Wellness in the First Responder Community is available on Amazon.ca at $41.45 for the hardcover, $24.93 for paperback and from $9.99 for Kindle.

cdoucette@postmedia.com

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