A Canadian Police Officer Died Today from PTSD

Suicides among OPP officers are higher than on-duty deaths. Moreover, OPP does not formally keep track of the number of officers that have taken their own lives.

A Canadian Police Officer Died Today from PTSD

Postby Thomas » Sun Oct 07, 2012 6:51 am

A Canadian Police Officer Died Today from PTSD

Attention: Mr. Andre Marin; Ombudsman of Ontario.

Dear Sir,

Yesterday, once again I have attended the funeral of another police officer who proudly served Ontario. This member had contacted me for help in 2011 regarding his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. At that time I assisted him as best I felt possible, urging him to seek treatment and outlining the various options such as Homewood’s PTSD program. Sadly, this OPP officer within weeks of being released from the Homewood hospital took his own life with his service revolver within the detachment where he once so eagerly and with great respect performed his duties as an OPP Supervisor.

A member of the family wrote to me, urging that I continue to fight for change… change so that this person didn’t die in vain. She advised:

“I write this to you as I cry for my daughter, her boyfriend, his sister and mother and his Dad who died today because of “PTSD brought on by police duties”…he committed suicide at his workplace. He too, attended Homewood, returned to work and couldn’t fight his demons. He was 48 years old. So please continue on with your work so that another family won’t have to go through this.”

It is now 831 days since I submitted my plea for help to you, Sir. Twice previously in my attached correspondence, I forecast that such devastation would occur again, if immediate action was not taken to change this completely flawed system. Sadly, this prediction became a reality.

Kruger Letter to the Ombudsman - March 19th, 2011(attached)

“Do more officers needlessly suffer or commit suicide due to inaction by all parties? Have enough studies not been done and meetings held?”

Kruger Letter to the Ombudsman – February 12th, 2012 (attached)

“I urge you, Sir, to please… indicate a time frame that your report will be finalized and submitted thus assuring the swift presentation of this extremely important report before more irreparable damage is done!”

I am fully aware of the complexities of this issue, and I’m also conversant of the activities of the Ministry of Labour, (WSIB) and the meeting that finely has taken place directed by a “Master Facilitator“. This sounds impressive at first blush, but… why has this been so horrifically long for a government agency to act upon this and for how much longer will the participants continue this unimpressive charade! Please keep in mind this is only their second meeting in two years with the first one cancelled simply due to a fire alarm sounding! Not only is the time frame to date, disgraceful but that there is not even a target date to set objectives, or time goals for initiatives to be in place. Matter of fact, it appears that these various organizations simply cannot get around money issues instead of seeing the death and destruction that their lack of action is creating! Their next meeting isn’t scheduled for over another three months. The Ontario Ministry of Labour, WSIB, OACP, and related police associations which formed this “working group” should be ashamed of such glacial movement forward! It’s about time that both the Minister of Labour and the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services take responsibility for this lack of progression demanding immediate and appropriate timelines to get these issues resolved! I also urge the government critics for these two Ministries to ensure that this is finally completed.

As a side note to the above meetings, I find it abhorrent that representatives such as myself or other interested officers afflicted with PTSD or family representatives are not permitted to even sit in within these closed meetings to ascertain the facts and viewpoints that are being presented nor are we permitted to make presentations to the “Working Group“. To date, I have been denied access to any meeting pertaining to the working group. Over the past two years, various police associations have also denied permission for me or a group of PTSD survivors or families to present at any of their Board meetings. This has included the OPPA, OPP-COA, POA and the OACP… each organization had everything under control and yet… officers still die! What about the victims’ and families’ viewpoints? Are handicapped persons not permitted to attend decision-making meetings for accessibility? Are the blind not permitted to attend regulatory decision-making meetings for sightless legislation? These secretive meetings do nothing to add credence to the competency of such a group other than to ensure that their own agendas are met. PTSD survivors and families deserve a say and nothing less!

On June 10, 2010, the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police passed a resolution to collectively meet with other concerned “official“ parties to “explore issues” and “develop an appropriate diagnostic tool with respect to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder”. Later the OACP publicly stated that they are concerned about the “financial tsunami” PTSD claims will create for their respective police services. In almost two years, this assorted group of alleged professionals haven’t even defined a “Diagnostic Tool” let alone helped any police officer or family with PTSD. It is not to their financial benefit nor interests to hurry this process either!

Police associations within Ontario have raised concerns about the cost of accommodating officers who may be required to be off duty or return only to light duties due to PTSD. Most recently, the Ontario Association of Police Services Boards have presented an “Issue Paper“ outlining great financial implications regarding legislation that would create further costings for their communities if PTSD “Programs and Presumptive Legislation “are passed. Please don’t tell the grieving family today, Sir, that their loved one died because of a lack of assistance programs and leadership within Ontario created by financial arguing for over two years! Wars have been fought and successfully resolved in far less time than this investigation has taken! It casts an unfavourable light upon the importance placed on this matter of PTSD and mental illness.

Mr. Marin, I’m frustrated trying to answer officers’ concerns regarding a lack of self-support programs from policing services. I’m frustrated hearing about financial matters such as PTSD victims being unable to pay their family mortgages because WSIB paycheques cease prior to OPP pay cheques re-commencing. I’m frustrated hearing from families (spouses and children) contacting me for help because of a lack of confidential support programs that are not in place. Yes, I’m very frustrated because of so many government failures to date, that due to a lack of guidelines, leadership and financial handwringing have created a horrendous and deadly situation! I had to turn to the Operational Stress Injury Social Support (OSISS) program of the Canadian Armed Forces for help during my darkest days. I was lucky but now I should be concentrating to get myself well instead of having to aid those that the government has dramatically failed, but … I shall not give up!

I also take great exception to the public statement of a municipal police Inspector, who advised in a local newspaper pertaining to this most recent occurrence that, “The incident wasn’t a threat to public safety. There are no issues that should concern the public.“ I can’t believe a more compelling issue that needs to be presented directly to the public letting them know the extreme lack of support and programs for mental health issues within our police services. In this particular case, I’m urging the deceased family to demand a full, public inquest, hopefully and finally so that PTSD and mental health issues involving police personnel will be brought to the forefront once and for all. PTSD no longer belongs hidden in a dark closet to be feared by officers as a career ending diagnosis!

Citizens deserve to have a complete understanding of the extremely disheartening way police personnel are currently treated mentally, physically and financially due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as compared with members of the Canadian Armed Forces. Forces personnel receive adequate compensation, have the OSISS program in place for self and family support and protocols for diagnosis and treatment of Armed Forces personnel. Why are we reinventing the wheel instead of following such an example? Do we deserve anything less? I have received information that members of the Canadian Forces are currently prepared to assist with these protocols… why are we dallying?

One note of encouraging change was seen yesterday, Sir, at the funeral of this OPP officer. Although it was not deemed a police funeral, a senior lady came up to myself and two other OPP members walking into the church. Being one of the first to arrive, she said, “Thanks so much for coming and for not turning your backs on him” (the deceased officer). Her concern was palpable, worrying whether any officers would come to the funeral due to the circumstances of his death. I am extremely proud to say that the church was packed with dozens of officers in dress uniform from the OPP, and various municipal police. Members were also included from the OPP Association, First Nations and the RCMP to honour and give thanks to this dedicated officer and his family. Even OPP Commissioner Chris Lewis and his Deputies were in attendance providing a show of compassion and solidarity. Yes, at all levels it was clearly acknowledged that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is not a shameful affliction but rather just another tragic realism of policing which we all face. Slowly, attitudes are changing towards mental health and police work!

Mr. Marin, to date, your Special Ombudsman’s Response Team (S.O.R.T.) has done a tremendous and extremely compassionate task of interviewing and researching this matter. But enough is enough! It is time to hear from the Ombudsman! As you can probably detect, Mr. Marin, I too, am devastated at the loss of yet another fine officer.

Sincerely,

Bruce C. Kruger, M.B.
Detective Inspector (retired)
Ontario Provincial Police

84 Beaumont Drive,
Bracebridge, ON P1L 1X2

705-706-2834 Cell
705-645-5814 Home

We urge everyone to take a moment and write the Ontario Ombudsman, the Premier of Ontario and your local member of the Ontario Legislature to please… please take immediate action on creating legislation to recognize the seriousness of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and that immediate assistance and guidance be provided to police personnel and their families throughout Ontario.

Thank you

Their email addresses are:

Premier of Ontario
Premier Dalton McGuinty - dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org

Ombudsman of Ontario
Mr. Andre Marin - info@ombudsman.on.ca

http://badgeoflifecanada.com/2012/04/15 ... from-ptsd/
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Re: A Canadian Police Officer Died Today from PTSD

Postby Thomas » Sun Oct 07, 2012 6:53 am

Police still not getting the help they need with PTSD

A shot rang out from a police officer’s gun this month leaving one man dead.

It even happened in the OPP’s Midland detachment, but the Special Investigations Unit has not been called in.

“Douglas William James (Doug) Marshall — (OPP Officer, Southern Georgian Bay Detachment) — Suddenly on Tuesday, April 10, 2012, in Midland at the age of 45. Doug, beloved husband of Rachael (nee Wheldon). Proud father of David & Sarah.”

There was no mention in the obituary of post-traumatic stress disorder, but the last line hinted “in lieu of flowers donations to the Canadian Mental Health Association.”
It’s so bloody tragic.

And another reminder police officers are not super human.

Sgt. Doug Marshall, a popular cop, a great husband and dad, a long-time public servant and community volunteer, took out his own gun and ended his life in the Hwy. 12 OPP detachment.

The unit was shut down until last Monday and officers and residents are in a state of both grief and shock.

But is there anything going to be done about the kind of pressure police officers are under?

This question is being raised by former OPP Det.-Insp. Bruce Kruger, himself a victim of PTSD, who had called out for action long before.

“It has been more than 840 days since I wrote my first letter to Ombudsman Andre Marin,” he said.

In an April 11 letter Kruger wrote Marin: “Once again I have attended the funeral of another police officer who proudly served Ontario. This member had contacted me for help in 2011 regarding his post-traumatic stress disorder. At that time I assisted him as best I felt possible, urging him to seek treatment and outlining the various options such as Homewood’s PTSD program. Sadly, this OPP officer within weeks of being released from the Homewood took his own life with his service revolver within the detachment were he once so eagerly and with great respect performed his duties as an OPP supervisor.”

In an earlier Kruger letter to the ombudsman, he asked: “Do more officers needlessly suffer or commit suicide due to inaction by all parties?”

Linda Williamson, spokesman for the ombudsman, assures the report is being “written” and will come this summer. Perhaps a coroner’s inquest will be called.

On Wednesday morning, Marin responded to this column on Twitter: "This case is one of our top priorities … Police officers suffering from stress injury need our support.

Do they have it? What can b (sic) done to help them? Answers: summer 2012 … Police officers serve and protect us. When they get injured in the line of work, we need to serve and protect them."

Meanwhile, if Kruger, now retired to Bracebridge, seems inpatient it may be because he has his own experience — as illustrated in a 2010 award-winning series in the Toronto Sun by Mark Bonokoski.

“In 1977 I shot and killed an escaped prisoner about to shoot a trapped OPP officer with a sawed-off shotgun,” Kruger explains. In 1978 “I had my boat burnt by a drug dealer, found a fellow officer shot in the head frozen in a snowbank” and in 1980 “was involved in the double drowning of a young boy and his father.”

In 1981, he was run down by a car driven by an escaping Peeping Tom and has endured five operations since.

But there was another Bono column from 2009 that is also a beacon for the reality of cops suffering from PTSD. It’s the story of the 2005 suicide of 57-year-old copper Eddie Adamson, the son of a former police chief, in a motel room where he was found surrounded with notebooks and clippings from the incident that had been bothering him for 25 years.

As Bonokoski wrote so well: “While it was definitely a gun that ended Eddie Adamson’s nightmares, what loaded that bullet into its chamber was the cumulative impact of what happened on March 14, 1980 — the day Toronto Const. Michael Sweet, a father of three young girls, was shot, held hostage, and allowed to bleed to death by the notorious Munro brothers during a botched robbery … He wanted to storm the restaurant, knowing that Sweet had been shot and was in critical condition. But he was ordered to stand down. And obeying that order — after arduously arguing against it — haunted him to his grave.”

Kruger understands a copper’s pain. He doesn’t understand why such pain is not dealt with more urgently since those who die with PTSD were essentially killed in the line of duty as much as if someone else had pulled the trigger.

http://m.torontosun.com/2012/04/24/poli ... -they-need
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Re: A Canadian Police Officer Died Today from PTSD

Postby William5847 » Thu Mar 06, 2014 3:13 pm

I know this is an outdated reply to the above-noted article. I would like to thank D/Insp (ret) Bruce Kruger for the intensity of his work on behalf of all emergency service members. I just finished the 8 week program for PTSR (Post Traumatic Stress Recovery Program) at Homewood. Without his guidance I probably would be just another statistic.

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