Unless one has become totally immune or desensitized to the tragedy unfolding around us it's hard to escape the fact that the rate of life taking and senseless violence has been steadily increasing. The reality is we are talking about very public and horrific acts of murder-suicide. In many cases the victims are known to each through family relationships. In some, they appear at first glance, to be random acts of violence. Fact tells us that there are at least three factors common to any of these tragedies; Adults and Children are dead, Police and Fire personnel have the grim task of clean up plus further investigation and that first responders are also often wounded (physically or psychologically) or killed in the process of protecting life.
Suicide rates in the general USA population have increased in just the past few years from approximately 11 per 100,000 people to 13 per 100,000. Notable progress has been made in reducing suicide rates among the incarcerated population from a high near 100 per 100,000 in the early 1990's to approximately 33 per 100,000 as of this writing. That progress has been primarily accomplished by better monitoring of individuals identified as being at higher risk. But what about our Police and Firefighters who deal with trauma and tragedy on an almost daily basis? Are their suicide rates falling or rising?
While researchers quibble over exact figures, a general consensus pegs suicide rates of those who protect our lives at roughly 2 to 1 of the general population. That means roughly 26 to 28 per 100,000 Police or Firefighters take their lives each year. Estimates of the number of non-fatal attempts are likely to never be known with any exactness. Many fine Fire and Police organizations have taken up the tasks of trying to educate family & friends as well as to provide for the early identification of their peers at high risk for suicide. Common knowledge indicates that Fire and Police personnel are at roughly twice the risk as the general public for divorce and alcohol problems so it makes sense to try and include suicide in their staff training and family mental health programs.
Factors that lead to these higher risks have been theorized to include the increased pressure of the job, the pressure to separate from others in life who do not share the same experiences and the traumatic nature of the professions themselves. As any Police Officer or Firefighter will tell you, no explanation will ever be good enough to provide complete understanding to a civilian while no explanation is ever necessary for a peer with the same first hand set of experiences.
We commend those Fire and Police organizations, as well as the professionals within their respective departments who make attempts to constructively confront these issues. We believe their efforts are more than just step in the right direction. We also believe that programs like Stress Inoculation have to be looked at more seriously and incorporated into regular training programs. Training for both Police and Firefighters include rigorous and repeated sections on those elements of their professions that have the ability to take a life or cause serious injury. We at Municipal Stress Services believe the nature of the job requires Stress Inoculation training as a central part of any Police or Fire Department training program.
Training to prevent suicide is good at all levels and at all points along the
continuum of dangerousness. Steps taken to help inoculate Police Officers and Firefighters to the stress of their jobs before the danger has a chance to develop, is even better. We also believe there needs to be as much emphasis on Firefighter and Police Suicide prevention as there has been on prevention among incarcerated individuals.
