Lt. Connie Kelley has been with the Hartford Vermont Police Department for 25 years. During that time there’s been a growing awareness of the importance of addressing officer health and police officer stress and wellbeing, a “culture shift” that Lt. Kelly applauds.
“I started in law enforcement in 1996 and you didn’t talk about the emotional toll that it would
take on you or maybe because you have your bravado up, it may be years before that stuff affects you,” Kelley acknowledges. “Just to say like, ‘ah, it doesn’t bother me.’ You get numb to it after a while. ‘Ah, you see one dead body, you see them all.’ Well, you don’t. And eventually it takes a toll on you.”
In July of 2024, Lieutenant Kelley and four of her fellow officers from the Hartford Police Department joined a cohort of other first responders who had signed up for Beyond Us & Them’s Peace Officer Wellness, Empathy & Resilience (POWER) training program, organized through Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, in New Hampshire. In addition to the Hartford Police Department, the cohort included officers from the New Hampshire Department of Corrections and University of New Hampshire Police, along with several local firefighter/paramedics.
Building and sustaining an officer wellness program
The Peace Officer Wellness, Empathy & Resilience training program was developed in response to the critical state of first responder stress and overwhelm and the alarming and often tragic statistics around the impact that dysregulation has on officer health, as well as its erosive effect on police-community relations.
POWER Training teaches powerful stress management and self-care techniques, equipping officers with tools to enhance focus, recognize dysregulation, communicate more effectively and de-escalate conflict without resorting to excessive force. The training also focuses on the importance of relationship, with oneself, one’s colleagues and the community members one is sworn to protect and serve.
The POWER approach reinforces skills of attention, self-regulation, and discernment, fostering a deeper understanding and more skillful approach to implicit bias, cultural diversity, and community policing.
First responder feedback to POWER training overwhelmingly positive
After participating in POWER’s twelve-week training session, Lt. Kelley has been raving about the program. She’s even taken to teaching some of the lessons, like the 4-7-8 breathing exercise taught in the program, to her young daughter.
“POWER can be used anywhere and you can use it in your personal life, the skills that you use and you can share those skills,” Kelley explains. “[This job] takes a toll on your body and your wellbeing and your mind and your relationships. So why not teach people right from the get-go, the proper skills on how to take care of yourself because maybe you’re not taking care of yourself and you don’t realize it. Or maybe you’re suffering and you don’t realize it — and you don’t see the signs in yourself, but someone else who’s been to the training can see the signs in you and can say, ‘Hey, why don’t you try this?’ or ‘why don’t you try that?'”
A clinical research associate and nurse with Dartmouth Health who advocated to bring the program to New Hampshire says, “I believe this program is life changing, I saw it for myself, and I want to bring this back again.”
First responder participants in the New Hampshire POWER cohort highlight the impact of the program and ongoing council practice: “It exceeded my expectations.”
Most participants in the New Hampshire POWER cohort rated the program 5/5. Some feedback and testimonials can be found below:
- “I like how open most people were during the councils. The information provided during the process was very beneficial, as well.”
- “The program actually taught me how to better deal with and process my emotions. I appreciated that I was able to be very real about what I was feeling deep inside, where things hide.”
- “I appreciated the unconventional use of games and activities to allow us to both process and come together. I believe we were able to come together as a group and to help each other work through stress and trauma, while also learning coping mechanisms and techniques we can use in the future to help others.”
- “I enjoyed the feeling of a safe place to speak my mind during the process.”
- “The councils ended up fostering a sense of community… We really learned a lot about ourselves and each other.”
- “I found this course to beneficial on so many different levels. I have brought a lot that I have learned home and applied it to my daily life.”
- “I truly enjoyed this program and found it very beneficial. I hope that this class will be offered in the New Hampshire/ Vermont area again so I can recommend it to co workers.”
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