Code 9 -Officer Needs Assistance -PTSD -FirstResponders #MentalHealth #Stigma

Code 9 - Officer Needs Assistance The Documentary Trailer

Deborah Louise Ortiz

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Uploaded on Jan 28, 2012

This powerful documentary which is being co-produced by the wife of a retired state trooper suffering with PTSD will explore the darker side of law enforcement as it tells the stories of police officers and their families who are now suffering the mental anguish of the careers they chose, which has led some to suicide.

For more info on the project please visit: www.Code9project.com

Contact us at Code9project@aol.com

        I worked at a Youth Jail and at no time was I trained and educated about Trauma, or Vicarious Trauma  . Ontario has yet to pass legislation that protects first responders with regard   to PTSD. They continue to ignore the plight of  workers being injured and actively use the term Inherent Risk  to act as a barrier for injured workers.  Paul Murphy 

   

New Democrat MPP Cheri DiNovo has tabled a bill that would fast-track benefit claims for police and other front-line responders with post-traumatic stress disorder arising out of work.

On Wednesday, DiNovo (MPP-Parkdale-High Park) will hold a news conference with key stakeholders to announce her private member’s bill to amend the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act.

The bill was tabled late last week.

More: Police officers open up about secret work stresses

If passed, the “presumptive” legislation would mean that it would be presumed that front-line responders suffering from PTSD acquired the illness on the job.

PTSD claims now are decided on a case-by-case basis, and appeals can take years to settle.

DiNovo’s proposed legislation is similar to an Ontario law passed in 2007 affecting firefighters who develop any of eight types of cancer or have a heart attack within 24 hours of battling a fire.

Prior to the change, the onus was on firefighters to prove they got sick on the job in order to get compensation from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB).

Jim Christie, head of the Ontario Provincial Police Association, said his group supports DiNovo’s bill because police employers currently “drag out the process.”

“Why would you not want any employee, if they’re suffering from an illness, to be diagnosed, be treated and get back to work?”

DiNovo has tried to get this amendment passed in 2008 and 2010, but her bill did not get to second reading.

However, with a minority Liberal government and more public understanding of PTSD, DiNovo believes her bill has a better chance this time.

“It’s one of those important issues we have to keep pounding on until it happens,” she said. “These are critical battles for the people affected.”

The news conference follows a Star investigation this past weekend into complaints to Ontario ombudsman André Marin by former and current Ontario Provincial Police officers about how the force deals with PTSD.

Marin’s report is expected to be released publicly in the next few weeks.

Post-traumatic stress disorder can emerge after exposure to a traumatic event or series of events, and may include paranoia, nightmares, rage, flashbacks and panic attacks.

Andy Emmink, a lawyer who handles many police WSIB claims, said officers can now be forced at hearings to reconstruct the policing experiences that led to their PTSD.

“It’s difficult to get an incident number for an event that happened back in the 1980s,” Emmink said. “Often the WSIB will say, ‘We can’t corroborate any of this, so your claim is denied.’ ”

In trying to reconstruct their traumatic history, some officers relive the horror and suffer total relapse.

Since DiNovo last presented the presumptive legislation, police leaders have expressed concerns, predicting a “financial tsunami” for cities and staffing problems for police if presumptive legislation is passed.

DiNovo discounts that reasoning.

“This doesn’t mean there is going to be a run on the bank,” she said, adding that society will be paying in social assistance if these front-line workers aren’t treated and treated quickly.

She called for “dignity” for these workers and not making them “grovel” for benefits.

Financially, the WSIB is staggering under the weight of an unfunded liability of $13.74 billion, which has grown from $9 billion in 2007.

The WSIB is financed through premiums charged on the insurable payrolls of employers.

Unless it addresses this liability, the WSIB may be unable to meet its existing and future financial commitments to provide workers benefits, Ontario Auditor General Jim McCarter has warned.

Unfunded liability is the difference between the assets currently available to make future payments on claims that are already in the system and an estimate of the WSIB’s financial obligation to make future payments as they become due.

This unfunded liability is driven by rising claims and health-care costs that outpaced premium revenues, the WSIB says.

In the eye of the storm is WSIB president and CEO David Marshall, who was hired in 2009 in part to eliminate this unfunded liability, and the WSIB thought this could be done by 2014.

Marshall receives a bonus of up to 20 per cent on his $400,000 salary to reduce claims, and his critics say this bonus is being paid on the backs of workers.

Meanwhile, much work behind the scenes is being done on post-traumatic stress involving the WSIB.

Last month, the labour ministry announced it is launching a roundtable with police as key stakeholders to identify and share best practices for dealing with post-traumatic stress in the workplace.

The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police is calling for more discussion to come up with an appropriate diagnostic tool to identify PTSD in police personnel.

“We’re not resisting,” said association executive director Ron Bain, adding that “spin” from some corners suggest that police leaders have been insensitive on the issue.

“I think that’s a bit unfair,” he said, adding police are trying to come up with a PTSD model specific to policing.

Comparisons to the military model don’t work, he said, because “people in the military situation are not looking to go back to the front line. We’re looking for something that fits policing.”

A working group of police leaders is trying to come up with an education component to address stigma as well as preventable piece.

The biggest challenge is a diagnostic tool.

The generally accepted practice is that, during WSIB hearings, opinion evidence from psychologists and psychiatrists is presented and the tribunal makes a determination.

“Our position is that it would be preferable to have a diagnostic tool to facilitate these processes,” Bain said. “That’s what we’ve been working on.”

Earlier this year, the Ontario Association of Police Services Boards, the umbrella group for municipal policing boards across the province, objected to making PTSD a presumptive workplace injury for police.

Fred Kaustinen, executive director of the association, said the government should require all PTSD diagnoses in police personnel to be made by registered psychiatrists or clinical psychologists.

A general practitioner should not be qualified to diagnose PTSD, said Kaustinen, adding he understands PTSD because he acquired the illness while serving in the army.

Province-wide standards of diagnosis should be implemented to weed out possible misdiagnosis or fraud, which can put financial stress on municipalities, he said.

“We recognize it (PTSD) is real and it’s extremely difficult, and also extremely difficult to assess.”

Kaustinen said police employers are concerned that the illness can be faked.

“What I’ve heard from police chiefs is they get the family GP (general practitioner) to write it up and then they use that to bridge into retirement,” Kaustinen said. “Take a few years off early.”

David McFadden, president of the Police Association of Ontario, said officers suffering from PTSD want nothing better than to be treated quickly and get back to work.

He cited the recent case of Peterborough-Lakefield tactical officer Keith Calderwood, who was shot multiple times, once by friendly fire, while carrying out a drug warrant in Lindsay, Ont., on June 22, 2011.

Calderwood got immediate psychological help along with physical assistance, and after therapy is back at work doing light duties behind a desk.

“We as an association were able to facilitate a psychologist to him right away,” McFadden said. “We didn’t wait three or four days.”

Calderwood told the Star he was able to return to work because of early psychological intervention.

“I want to return to the tactical squad,” he added.

ALSO ON  THE STAR:

How the Ontario Provincial Police deals with officers’ PTSD

PTSD hurts families of police officers, too