NIU Hosting Mental Health Training For Law Enforcement Officers
Source: NIU

Northern Illinois University is hosting two seminars this month to train police officers on the risks of post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide.

The programs are happening as the result of a grant of nearly $36,000 from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority.  Watch 23WIFR coverage of NIU grant.

The seminars will be conducted by NIU psychology professor Michelle Lilly, who specializes in PTSD and trauma recovery, and Sgt. Shawn Curry of the Peoria Police Department, who is also the vice president of the Illinois Public Pension Fund Association (IPPFA), which is co-sponsoring the seminars with the university.

“It’s time we give back and really save blue lives,” says Northern Illinois University associate professor of clinical psychology Michelle Lilly. “It’s just really important to remember that most people run away from danger… they’re running toward danger to protect all of us.”

The first seminar is scheduled at the Hoffman Estates campus of NIU on June 12 and 13. Another is scheduled June 26 and 27 in Naperville.  Both Seminars are currently full.

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Social, Economic Inequities Grow with Age
Source: Center for Retirement Research

Retirement, as portrayed in TV commercials, is for indulging a passion, whether tennis, enjoying more time with a spouse, frequent socializing, or civic engagement.

Boston University sociologist Deborah Carr isn’t buying this idealized picture of aging.

“This gilded existence is not within the grasp of all older adults,” she argues in “Golden Years? Social Inequality in Later Life.” “For those on the lower rungs of the ladder,” she writes, retirement is “marked by daily struggle, physical health challenges and economic scarcity.”

Her book, which mines multidisciplinary research on aging, reaches the distressing conclusion that economic inequality not only exists but that it becomes more pronounced as people age and become vulnerable. And this problem will grow and affect more people as the population gets older.

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“NO INDIVIDUAL, NO MATTER HOW HIGHLY TRAINED OR WELL-ADJUSTED, IS IMMUNE TO THE LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF CUMULATIVE STRESS OR SUDDEN CRITICAL INCIDENTS.”
Source: IPPFA

“America’s First Responders are tasked with dealing with work that is highly stressful, where one continually faces the effects of murder, violence, accidents, serious injury, and death. The day in, day out effects of these situations wreak havoc both personally and professionally on those who serve their communities. Work as a first responder is a combination of extreme boredom with incidents of mind-numbing terror.”

 

“Most officers work 50+ hours a week taking care of everyone else’s problems, and they rarely take the time to take care of their own. It’s time every officer looks at those who stand firm alongside of them and begin to take care of one another and ourselves.”

 

To read Shawn’s article in full, please click here.

 

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Create your personal my Social Security account today
Source: Social Security Administration

With your free, personal my Social Security account, you can receive personalized estimates of future benefits based on your real earnings, see your latest Statement, and review your earnings history. It even makes it easy to request a replacement Social Security Card or check the status of an application, from anywhere!

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