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Starting this week, the Albany County Sheriff’s Office will have a new Health and Safety Wellness employee who will send out information to deputies on mental health awareness, as well as other important aspects like nutrition, physical fitness, and work life balance.
The new wellness program was announced Tuesday, May 3, on the agency’s Facebook page.
Officials said one of their main goals is to help deputies and other first responders decompress after traumatic events by encouraging them to seek support.
“For our first responders to help others in the community, ensuring that they have the support and outlets needed to take care of their own overall wellness is paramount,” the sheriff’s office said.
“Looking after their own mental and physical health, and having resources for handling the stressors of their jobs are of utmost importance to us at the Albany County Sheriff’s Office.”
The hope is that by engaging officers early enough they’ll be able to address potential mental health issues before they become more serious.
“Being a larger agency these issues sometimes get overlooked due to workload,” the agency said. “We have lost far to many officers to suicide, depression, or unhealthy habits.”
In 2019, there were 239 officer suicides in the US, more than other line-of-duty deaths like felony killings or accidental deaths, according to the nonprofit organization, Blue H.E.L.P., which tracks data on law enforcement suicides.
The new wellness program is being funded in part by a grant from the Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Center of New York State.
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