Dear Desert Waters, I want to thank you very much for your fine publication. I work in the ________ Department of Corrections as an Officer. I have been employed by the Department for over 25 years now and have had a pretty good career. I have been involved in many extra duties related to my job over the years, one of which currently is with our Critical Incident Response Team which assists staff after Critical Incidents.
I have personally been exposed to the typical things you would expect in this type of career and career length. I have ridden the ups and I have ridden the downs of this career choice. It has been a good career for me, and has provided for my wife and me, and for our two sons, who are now grown and out of the house. But there has been a cost. That is why I really get a lot out of your publication. I print it off from our computer at work and read it at home. I even share parts of it with my wife, like I did last night.
In our Department, we have things/teams/people to help us deal with the trauma from the job. But as my wife and I were having a discussion the other day, she looked at me and said, “But why is there not anything to help the spouses?” I was speechless. The reality is, no, there is not anything for spouses. And my wife of almost 36 years wanted to know why there wasn’t something to help the families of Officers deal with the effects of the job on their loved ones.
Make no mistake about it, the job has been tough on me. But I work with people in the business, and we do talk. But as my wife told me, there is absolutely no one that she can talk to. Not her sister, not her parents, not her best friend, and not the Pastor of our church. She has plenty of friends, but not one of their spouses is in law enforcement. As she told me, there is no one that understands what and how she feels. No one. She rarely talks to me about how my career has impacted her, but I know that she suffers, mostly in silence. After all these years it finally sank in how much she is bothered by this.
And so, I told her after our last discussion that I would write you and ask you if there are any resources (books, videos, etc.) for loved ones of Corrections Staff that can help them with the effects of this career. Thank you very much for any assistance that you can provide.
