Boland said it is critical for officers to understand their community, and they have to be close-knit as a group. He said just like in a family, in a lot of cases when you work, to do the kind of work police are required to do, it’s not easy to go home and talk to your children or your spouse about that work. “Sometimes it’s only the people that you work with. Police officers are human, they have all the other stressors that go on in a person’s life, but they have this other side,” he said. This is the second foray into Newfoundland and Labrador via a first-responders organization. Scott Maxwell, the executive director of Wounded Warriors Canada, who was on hand for the announcement, said his history here goes back about four years. “It’s an historic day for Wounded Warriors Canada in terms of our partnerships and our development of first responder support,” Maxwell said. “It’s really special because four years ago I received a cold call to my office from a gentleman named John Heffernan, who is now chief of C.B.S. fire and serves with the 32 Service Battalion here in Newfoundland. I want to help get Wounded Warriors more known and more involved, so would you be interested in coming to speak and attend as the charitable partner for uniform services dinner?” Maxwell said he thought … “OK, I’m Scott, you’re John … nice to meet you. That was about the gist of that call. So I went to that and formed a really good relationship with John ever since. “During that dinner there was a lot of conversation about uniform service and the impact of operational stress — not only on veterans and their families — and of course on our first responders and their families and the communities in which they serve. “For WWC, having the agreement in place is invaluable. If two spots coming up next month are available, it is known exactly who to send this information to, knowing then the information is disseminated down through the services for the association and everyone can trust that process and rely on the people coming to the program that stand to benefit the most from what we are doing. “We wanted to ensure we had formalized relationships, not loose relationships with a member of service, referring people or something like this so all these people are coming to us from all parts of Canada when we are not really sure where or who they are,” Maxwell said. “The big difference with what we have done for the veteran population and what we are doing now with the first responder population is just having a clear knowledge, dissemination process for referring into the WW program.” By formalizing the process, the RNC and RNCA can embark on getting a person in place to oversee the task of ensuring mental health services are readily available for each and every member on staff. “We’re in the stages now of identifying the position description, what will it look like, who’s the person we are going to hire or what do we expect from that person,” Boland said. “The position won’t be a position where it is any specific area of mental wellness, physical wellness that person will have the skills to be able to direct. If we need to reach out to Scott’s organization, or we need to reach out to EAP, whatever it is, it is going to be another part of trying to work our way through this by identifying potential issues. It will be a part of that whole strategy of keeping our people well in the beginning.” 103 www.rnca.ca Royal Newfoundland Constabulary Association continued The RNCA represents the 380 Non-Commissioned Ranks of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary. The ranks are made up of Constables, Sergeants and Staff Sergeants. The goals and objectives of the RNCA are to improve benefits and working conditions for police officers, improve public safety and strive to create a positive relationship between the police and the community they protect. Find us on the web www.rnca.ca
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