Episode 47
Dallas Police Department Wellness Unit OWL episode
 
Officer Wellness Longevity is the OWL
This story is a different type of episode as the ATO is happy to sit down and give the listener a look behind the curtain of Dallas PD’s brand new wellness unit.
In 2021 Chief Eddie Garcia tasked Assistant Chief Reuben Ramirez with creating a new robust unit to take a proactive approach to ensuring its officers have the support and education to be better versions of themselves in mind and body. This profession is a never- ending story of tragedy, violence, understaffing, and, in some cases, underappreciation for the women and men that show up daily to serve their citizens.
Dallas PD, with its long history of traumatic events, carries the scars from decades of these events and the daily grind of putting on that uniform and their iconic Dallas Police badge. A robust, all hands of deck proactive approach is long overdue to help our profession normalize the conversation on mental health and overall fitness so our officers understand, and ,more importantly, feel they have support to know its ok to NOT be ok.
 
In late August 2022 the Dallas Police Dept rolled out their new unit with Lieutenant Lisette Rivera, Sgt. Omar Figueroa, David Massey, Demarquis Black, Nacole Glass, and Joe King to provide support to their peers.
Dr. Heather Twedell, DR. T,  is back with the Bridging the Divide podcast to give her incredible insight and expertise in the mind of the first responder and speaks on the beat practices and paths for officers to take on their journey in resiliency.
 
In Dr. T’s own words: The police profession is like a bad human experiment as we expect a human being to sit and watch bad vision after bad vision and terrible experience after terrible experience for decades and expect them to be normal in their own lives and have healthy relationships.
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