Yoga. Biofeedback. Brain spotting. Mindfulness. A cup of coffee with a buddy.
All are part of an arsenal of therapies offered to Longmont police under a $100,000 state grant the city is applying for to help officers deal with today’s volatile environment, said Dan Eamon, assistant Public Safety chief.
“The police officers in the city of Longmont are the best in the country, but the day-to-day work of an officer is extremely difficult, especially with COVID and the current political environment,” Eamon said in an email this week. “It is imperative that we provide as many support services as we can to ensure that their mental health is taken care of.”
A key proponent of keeping Longmont cops emotionally healthy is Marilyn Meyers, who is a psychologist with specialty training and experience in first responder care, Eamon said. The grant allows Meyers to provide one-on-one counseling sessions for all of Longmont’s 158 commissioned officers
Meyers began offering full-time help last year when Longmont first received the grant from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs. Meyers is available for each and every officer 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Eamon said.
Meyers also provides group critical incident debriefing sessions and oversees the police department’s Peer Support Team. A portion of the grant pays Meyers’ $50,000 salary but also can pay for outside counseling for any certified officer, Eamon said.
The therapies can vary from art therapy, biofeedback, equine-assisted therapy and mindfulness cognitive behavioral therapy, according to the grant proposal.
The amounts and details of those services are confidential, he said. “What I can tell you is we place an enormous value on these services,” Eamon said.
The gregarious Meyers said each therapy is valuable and keeps Longmont ahead of other police departments in helping its officers deal with the daily rigors of the job.
“This grant allows us to do things proactively and gives officers tools to manage what is a highly stressful job,” Meyers said. “If we can handle things now, they may not have long-term physical and mental problems down the road.”
Meyers said studies have indicated many officers die five years after they retire. Officers often cannot shed the “fight or flight” chemical charges that come with everyday police work, even after they leave the job.
“We hopefully teach them how to handle the ‘fight or flight’ syndrome and how it could impact them years later,” Meyers said.
Longmont officers are aware of the media attention surrounding the national “defund the police” movement and worry state lawmakers could remove legal barriers that allow people to sue police officers directly after a shooting, she said.
Longmont, so far, has been spared those issues.
“I think there is an understanding that Longmont is very supportive of its police. And officers have worked hard to gain that support,” Meyers said.
The grant makes a variety of therapies available to officers, but maybe the best is a simple talk over a cup of coffee, she said.
“A lot of times officers will come up to me, take me aside and ask if they could talk to me for a few minutes,” Meyers said. “I also encourage them to ask a peer out for a cup of coffee. That alone can help someone immensely.”
