Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Case Study

Combating Police Suicide Caused by Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD is very dangerous because it can warp a person’s perception into something as drastic as extreme fear or extreme guilt. The fear and guilt combination can result in paranoia and, as a result, violent and depressive tendencies. The impact of PTSD on the police is a very sensitive topic because PTSD can affect the police officer’s performance, which can eventually lead to worsening of their condition that may or may not reach eventual suicide. According to Stanley, Hom, and Joiner (2016), first responders, which include firefighters, police officers, and emergency medical technicians, tend to exhibit psychiatric consequences after they have

Prevalence is the premise of management, need for more action, and preventive measures. It describes what exactly is happening and what action must be done to really help police officers overcome PTSD. Chae and Boyle (2013) assessed these risk factors and noted that prominent themes that contribute to the prevalence of PTSD are “exposure to persistent, low level stressors punctuated by emotionally intense experiences increase risk for suicidal ideation” and “Chronic exposure to low-level stress can yield debilitating effects that prevent officers from providing adequate services to the community” (p. 109). This goes to show that even small-scale stressors can result into suicide-level tendencies. When considering critical trauma, such as in the case of the police officers in 9/11, Bowler et al. (2016) stated that the level of trauma during 9/11 was so high that out of the 243 respondents who were police, 24.7% were diagnosed with depression, 5.8% had anxiety, and 47.7% had comorbid depression and anxiety. More critically, these police officers also had PTSD, so it was important to take note that prevalence of PTSD results in other comorbid conditions that affect the functionality of the