Maximizing Psychological Services: A Model Feedback Loop Between Evaluation and Treatment

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

2:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET

Location: 257AB

Submitter and Speaker(s)

Thomas Coghlan, PsyD

Police Psychologist
Blue Line Psychological Services
Great Neck, New York, United States

Speaker(s)

WM

William Mazur

Deputy Chief (Ret.)/Public Safety Liaison
Acadia Healthcare
Linwood, New Jersey, United States
Lewis Schlosser, PhD

Police Psychologist
The Institute for Forensic Psychology
Oakland, New Jersey, United States

Due to stigma regarding mental health, officers may resist treatment, remaining undiagnosed and untreated. This sometimes leads to externalizing behaviors, requiring an agency response through discipline or a fitness for duty (FFD) referral. Such behaviors range from benign to severe, at times resulting in involuntary separation from the agency, creating a loss for the agency in staffing, overtime, and time spent hiring and training that officer. Re-envisioning FFD recommendations as an aspect of a feedback loop to treatment can reduce agency loss and save officer careers. The presenters will provide examples and discuss ways in which officers engage in such behaviors and offer strategies to maximize feedback between FFD and treatment to retain employees, prevent loss, and save lives.