Police Mental Health: from self-improvement to community improvement | Jean-Michel Blais | TEDxMSVU

MSC gasps yes stroke it on and thank you very much 20 years and Counting in policing 25 of those with the RCMP and as Peter indicated before in some pretty interesting places the the time that I've spent in those places as well as in four different provinces across Canada in Colombia Guba as well as in the United States have afforded me the chance to see and live different things that has really modified I think the way that I've looked at things the way that I've acted over the years what I want to be able to do and I don't have any slides and my apologies for that is I want to be able to just share with you some of the lessons that I've learned and garnered that have allowed me to become not only a better leader a better police leader but a better individual a better husband a better neighbor and I dare say just a better overall person and hopefully you'll be able to take something from that before we do that I just want to touch upon two definitions and it's really time to that mark came before me because he provided the first definition and that is of leadership in a single word leadership is influence it's how you influence people taking them from point A to point B the second one is a bit more nuanced and that is of policing now most people think about policing is being serve and protect but if you drill down at the most basic level what is policing at its most basic level and I submit to you that policing is dealing with those challenges and those problems that people themselves cannot would not and should not deal with as examples the drunk driver on the road a dog barking incessantly in the middle of the night or an individual who has just had their home rated or a shed broken into these are all things that individuals themselves shouldn't deal with and in many cases they can't deal with it and that's what policing is we're the consummate problem solvers and Halifax Regional Police we've gone through a recent exercise for our strategic plan where we've identified ourselves as being intelligence-led problem solving community contributors now that's our NC where we want to go that being said if I step back a bit to where I went and as Peter indicated in 2008 I was a deputy police commissioner in charge of 1700 police officers from different nationalities right across the world in Haiti 2008 was a very challenging time for us in Haiti in April we had two weeks worth of riots that resulted in 37 people being killed in those riots I had to be on the front line because we had many communication breakdowns and I had to direct our riot troops to be able to ensure the safety of believe it or not the riders themselves in August and September we had four successive and I mean literally successive all in space of a two-week period tropical storms / hurricanes that just hammered Haiti in one single night 1,100 people died in the small town of gonna Eve I was on the front lines to be able to direct and lead the UN police response to that crisis and then finally in 2008 in November of that same year we had a school collapse 93 children and about seven staff died in that collapse I was the site commander watching as every single body was brought forth in front of me we had a difficult situation whereby there was a child who is left alive who was found by the rescue team sandwiched between two dead children I had to make the decision to order the cutting in half of the body of one of the dead children so as to save the life of that child when I left Haiti in January 2009 I left a changed individual I went home and I figured my time in Haiti is done in 2010 in January the 12th of January to be exact at 4:53 p.m. a magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit at that moment and in the days have followed 250,000 people were killed included it in those 250,000 people were two Canadian police officers one of whom had actually replaced me a few months prior I had to go on the ground and I had to prawn fence purposes find them and dig them up brought them home with another police officer we were each placed into a funeral coach and we rode along the high wave heroes I saw and watched an absolute wonder the thousands people who braved the cold in that early February afternoon saluting waving flags Canadian flags as well as UN flags as we go by in absolute respect for those two fallen police officers time went by and I went into my regular work mode but there was something that was just egging me bothering me and I couldn't figure quite what it was until I met up with somebody who suggested that I go see a psychiatrist and one of the reasons why I'm wearing my uniform right here goes without saying that I'm the police chief I've been introduced as such but to let you know what I am NOT I am NOT a psychiatrist I am NOT a psychologist I'm a simple patient in January 2012 two years after coming back from Haiti I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD now I've learned a lot about what PTSD is and especially what PTSD is not so first off we're all human beings in this room whether it's your first dog that passed away or being involved in an accident or losing your best friend because of a move we've all gone through traumatic experiences so tell me put your hands up if you've gone through traumatic experience yeah you put your hand down no problem I'm gonna keep my hand up for a moment just to illustrate something you're human and it's just normal what happens is that we go through these very rare events and we have normal reactions to them that is post traumatic stress the disorder part comes about when it just persists it stays on there and this is what PTSD is it's a normal reaction to have normal stress that kinds around so you have this bad memory here what happens and this happens for me as well as those of us who are afflicted with it is that you also have this physiological response that occurs the two are entwined and try as you may you can't break them up so every time I think of something or I'm triggered and it could be something as simple as the crack in a sidewalk it brings me back to the time in Haiti when I was digging up the body of not only my friend but the many other friends and colleagues with whom I'd worked in 2008 what also happens is that you get that physiological response that hits you the pulse is racing sweating anxiety sets in and it's very very difficult to break that for myself what I do is I keep myself in a constant state of movement I walk the dogs twice a day while she they walk me okay I I walk all around the office you can ask the people with whom I work and they'll tell you about that I have a stand up desk to facilitate my movement I work out I'm not quite as good as Jim earlier on when he said 360 days year but I try as best I can to get to the gym all right and I do something believe it or not totally crazy that allows me to relax I referee Minor Hockey go figure all that to say is that there are ways of dealing with it and all I can do is manage it I don't drink because of that I don't smoke dope for that and many other reasons okay but keeping in mind that this is something that I live with on a daily basis the reason why I have to manage this is not because of the PTSD per se but it's what skulks around me on a regular basis and that thing that skulks around me and those people who have PTSD and that drive people to do themselves and others harm is depression so it's the second part PTSD is not depression it's something that you live with and you manage it but you manage it in such a way supposed to avoid that depression so now that I've depressed you folks all right what do i what I want to get to well the whole notion of leadership is such that I want to influence people and within the policing environment you can will appreciate where I work and where I have worked the culture is deeply ingrained and we're doing our best to change that Graham spoke about the challenges and in government I could have just opposed that on to a policing culture it's a challenge and the biggest challenge that we have to deal with is the attitude that are there we seen what's happened in Ferguson we've seen what's happened in Chicago in Toronto we've been very fortunate that these things haven't happened here because we've been working very hard and diligently they don't occur but the culture is comparable and we have to fight against that on a regular basis and one of the biggest things when it comes out and culture is how we deal with mental health and I'll tell you I look at the men and the women that I have the absolute honour of working with on a regular basis most of whom haven't had a chance to go into a failed country in a failed state like Haiti to work but day in day out they deal with other people's problems do you think that they're welcomed when they show up at the door no not whatsoever difference between us and firefighters were both first responders is that for the most part they're welcome thank goodness the firefighters here and they also have chiseled ABS okay well I'm not too sure if my chief Wiggum figure is is up to standard but the key is when our police officers are dispatched on a call they're not for the most part welcomed and we hear people talk about well let's bring policing into the 21st century well my version or my view and we heard it earlier on when it comes down technology technology really won't solve all of our problems in fact technology will probably as things are today cause us more problems than will allow us to solve body-worn cameras all types of surveillance equipment better training better equipment drones what-have-you you can name it those things aren't going to deal with the individual problems that people have to my knowledge and please correct me if I'm wrong when somebody calls up the police and we have a dispatcher who's given the call from the call taker you don't a button that automatically takes care of all the problems what do they do they dispatch a person a real live person that goes there that's 19th century old-school it's the inherent challenge that we have that we are dealing with people's problems and not with machines problems so when it comes down to policing in and of itself we have that culture that is very very strong day in day out when these police officers show up at the doors and they have to deal with the challenges that are they're spat upon shot at cut yeah well that sounds a bit like a hockey game anyways all right when they deal with that you think that doesn't leave them with lasting a lasting stress and this is why we're hearing more and more about PTSD so for myself being able to influence people the goal for me has been to be able to start that discussion in my organization and I'll tell you at night I don't sleep I wake up five six times a night you're gonna ask my dear wife who sees right here she has to learn nocturnal self-defense techniques okay when I'm thrashing about so that she can calm me down and get me back to sleep and there are days that I wake up and I don't want to go to work but I think about the people on the front line day-in day-out who are there and they inspire me they influence me to do that so where is in the past what we used to do we used to talk about well if you've had a tough time this is your third the third accident where you've had to pick up the body parts off the road come on with me we'll grab a 40-ounce er we'll drink it together or you don't see anything you suck it up buttercup those days are gone we now have a robust program that we're just rolling out right now called the road to mental readiness where we get people talking about how they feel Wow can you imagine that guys okay and gals okay who talk about how they feel and they've just arrested a whole bunch of bad people it's gonna take time there's no doubt about that so how does that tie in for you folks what can you learn from me a simple police officer well I think three things number one is get to know yourself understand what makes you tick understand what drives you be is brutally honest without being overly brutally honest with yourself because you can always be your worst detractor so to be able to understand who you are number two without judging because you'll judge yourself do the same process for others understand what makes them tick the inner work life of a person is composed of three things people's perceptions the lens through which they see things their motivations and their emotions try to understand that as best you can and then armed with that knowledge take that knowledge of who you are and who these people are and get your hands dirty be involved do what you can do to make things better but don't forget it's just like on the airplane when those masks come down you got to put your masks on before you put somebody else's mask on so take care of yourself take care of others and that's how you make things better that's how you can be the change that we are all looking for in our society and that we all need thank you very much

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 30,979

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Canada, Life, Global issues, Leadership, Mental health, Personal growth, Psychology

Id: Zcl5GEaX1Pk

Length: 17min 39sec (1059 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 01 2016