Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) can be of great help to staff who struggle with substance abuse issues. In my counseling practice with corrections staff over the past nine years, I have noted an additional area of need which crops us frequently with corrections personnel—that of posttraumatic stress. In fact, these two areas of substance abuse and psychological traumatization may well be interrelated. The “dual” (double) diagnosis literature indicates that oftentimes substances, such as alcohol, are the tool people abuse to “muffle” (self-medicate) their posttraumatic symptoms and make them more tolerable for a short while.1
Posttraumatic stress takes a heavy toll on body, soul, and spirit of survivors.1 In addition to substance abuse, untreated posttraumatic stress may contribute to high turnover, sick leave, and early disability retirement in corrections. And it may be at least partly responsible for the high suicide rates among corrections staff.2 Read more…
ctudor PTSD corrections officers, family, traumatic stress
I recently suggested that laughing helps us stay sane. Since theory without practice is useless, I decided to post this article submitted to Desert Waters by a CO wife. So read on, and chuckle, chortle and guffaw.
“He ate his shoes!” was what my husband mumbled over and over one evening during his first couple of months on the job in the prison system. What sort of job had he found himself in and what sort of people would eat their shoes? Thus began his life as a corrections officer, dealing with not only shoe-eaters, but inmates that would do just about anything. Read more…
ctudor family corrections officers, family
Whenever I come across well-functioning correctional staff, I ask them about the “secret of their success.” Here is some of what I’ve heard over the years. It is divided in three categories which correspond to the three areas DWCO targets in its mission—the occupational, personal and family well-being of corrections staff. Read more…
ctudor Smart Living family, integrity, professionalism, self-care
