Training police trainees about ways to manage trauma and loss

Abstract

For the second year we were invited to be trainers at a training seminar for senior police educators, held in the German Federal Police University and sponsored by the European Police College, hence, having the opportunity to build on their previous applications. We applied exercises (psychoeducation, mindfulness/awareness, journaling, processing in dyads) that introduced in this training and designed to teach officers how to handle exposure to adversities and minimize potential negative consequences. Police officers expect exposure to potentially traumatic incidents, yet, often suffer deeply because of unresolved trauma related to handling horrific events. Our work aimed to open discussion in order to formulate a standard component in training curricula related to teaching police trainees ways to effectively handle and process trauma.

Keywords::

• Critical incidents
• health
• police training
• preventative interventions
• resilience promotion

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude to Dr Wolfgang Kokoska, Senior Lecturer at the Federal German Police University in Muenster, Germany and Police Lieutenant Kleanthis Papagiannopoulos from the Hellenic Police Academy/National CEPOL Unit for the remarkable support which they provided for the completion of this study over the CEPOL's ‘Train the Trainers’ seminar at the Federal German Police University in Muenster, Germany.