Explains some of the effects of stress and how police organization may reduce stress for its officers - Essay Example

Running Head: Effects of Stress Effects of Stress [Institute’s Effects of Stress Researchers employ “suicide, divorce, and alcoholism” rates as three critical indicators of stress. Undoubtedly, police job is demanding and the most stressful profession in America, even exceeding the alarming anxieties of “air traffic control” (Stevens, 2007).Stress influences individuals in at least two ways. “First, extended stress causes people to regress” (Stevens, 2007). Their psychosomatic development overturns, and they tend to behave more immaturely.

They quickly become more irresponsible as well as reckless. An easily observed example is an unwell individual who is depressed and suffering for quite a lot of days. His wife will agree that he has become egotistical, noisy, and short-tempered; he demands continuous attention as well as care. He acts like a small, self-centered kid. In majority of the cases, individuals regress in persistent anxiety.Secondly, stress numbs the compassion of individuals. Since they cannot tolerate seeing persistent human despair, they stop feeling because otherwise they will not be able to survive.

The mind has this resistance method so people can carry on functioning during hideous circumstances. If they maintained their regular sympathy, they would collapse. As they become tactless towards their personal agony, they also become tactless to the agony of others. Police officers meet stressors in “call after call, which sap their strength” (Stevens, 2007). Debilitation from this every day stress adds up in making officials additionally susceptible to distressing happenings as well as common demands of life.

The deteriorating procedure is usually very slow to notice; neither an individual nor his acquaintances are aware of the harm being done.If persistent stressors are known, then police representatives can take positive steps. Departments should discontinue making false differences amid job-linked and personal difficulties. The two are interlinked and go with one another. The outcome is a bunch of individuals facing the maximum stress within any profession in US.Preventive Measures Police department cannot end stress in police occupation, however, they can identify it and assist officers in three phases: (1) offering assistance to individual officers, (2) offering help in family life, and (3) lessening the stress caused by the police department itself.

Direct assistance to individual officers can be provided in a number of forms. Every big unit should have a psychologist for the police officers and ensure that indemnity policies have good terms for outpatient therapy with external psychologists, psychiatric consultants, and counselors. Privacy is particularly important; the department must not know when a police officer consults a department psychotherapist.Departments can decrease officer segregation as well as do community affairs simultaneously by supporting community activities.

Officials should dynamically search for “positions on boards of directors for community organizations such as mental health associations and seek to place officers as representatives of the Police Department” (Peak et al., 2010). Police will acquire stability within their lives and civilians will better appreciate the police force. An accommodating mind-set will develop on both sides. Help in family life can be offered in quite a lot of ways. Psychoanalysis by the psychologist should be accessible for family units.

Orientation colloquiums for spouses will let them get some actual knowledge regarding the department.ReferencesPeak, K. G., Gaines, L. K., & Glensor, R. W. (2010). Police supervision and management: In an era of community policing. Prentice Hall.Stevens, D. J. (2007). Police Officer Stress: Sources and Solutions. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.