Breaking the Barriers: Changing the Way We Support the Physical and Mental Health of Police Officers

Unacceptably high rates of stress, anxiety, sleeplessness, and divorce have plagued the law enforcement profession for decades. Ask most police officers, firefighters, paramedics, prison guards, and anyone associated with police wellness and they will tell you "everything is fine." Yet the rate of police suicide continues to climb because of the profession's stigma against seeking help. Officers embrace their responsibility "to preserve and protect" by taking care of others ... but who is taking care of them?

Through interviews with some of the most renowned professionals in their fields, author and speaker Dr. Ron Rufo, a highly decorated, 22-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department, puts a spotlight on the importance of seeking mental health intervention before a minor issue becomes a major crisis.

In Breaking the Barrier, Rufo's fourth book and his second on police wellness, he explains why emotional wellness is as essential as officers' tactical training. He and dozens of supportive professionals-from the fields of psychology, sleep medicine, religion, leadership management, epidemiology and environmental health, holistic medicine, exercise physiology, and alternative medicine-offer strategies to achieve and maintain emotional, physical, psychological, and spiritual wellness throughout an officer's career.

Ron Rufo is on a crusade to rid the law enforcement profession of its constant and relentless shadow of despair. After describing the history of the police culture that contributes to today's physical and mental health issues, he presents a cornucopia of tools for intervention and support to help all law enforcement officers achieve a work/life balance that will lead to a long, healthy, and well-deserved retirement.