Mental Health Support Offered For Muskogee, Sand Springs Officers After Recent Traumatic Crimes

Many people are expressing their concern for the officers who responded to the recent calls in Muskogee and Sand Springs involving the deaths of children.

“Muskogee faced the worst incident I think a human could ever face and I’m people too, the officers that were there are people too and you leave that call trying to put a why,” said Muskogee Police Lieutenant Christopher Dean.

Police officers see trauma every day in their line of work, and that’s why many Green Country Departments have counselors on hand for them to talk to.

Officers say they never know what they’re going to face when they get in their patrol car to start the day, but on calls like the one they had in Muskogee Tuesday, you just can’t help being human and feeling emotional.

“I can still to this day remember it, 10, 11 years later everything about that call,” said Lieutenant Dean.

Lieutenant Dean has been on the job for 12 years now, but said some calls stick with you more than others, especially those involving children.

“Whenever you have your spouse or your kid wondering ‘why is dad quiet,’ you’re not going to sit a child down and say let me tell you what dad saw,” said Dean.

Lieutenant Dean said he was reluctant at first to ask for help but said talking with someone from the Department’s Peer Support Team was necessary for his mental health.

“They make it where it’s okay to feel it, it’s okay to be scared, it’s okay to be sad,” said Lieutenant Dean.

Licensed Professional Counselor Chelsea Brown has been working with Muskogee Police Officers for two years now.

“They’re getting exposed to a lot of compound, complex trauma and since that’s a vulnerable population, that’s a population we felt was underserved,” said Licensed Professional Counselor, Chelsea Brown.

She said normally people experience one to five traumas in their lifetime but said police officers can experience that in just a month.

“They would tell you that one they can usually manage fine, it’s the years’ worth of that over time that really wears them out,” said Brown.

Brown said when they started the program, about 28% of officers in the department were dealing with PTSD. Brown said that number has since been cut that in half.

“They may have worked a SIDS case or traffic fatality or a suicide and they’re really good at holding it together on the spot and doing it well but it’s more of the cumulative stress of that over time,” said Brown.

Brown said usually the most difficult part is realizing they need help.

“For officers it’s a little different, they don’t have problems they’re problem solvers. So, in those instances it just takes that professional hand to be able to have a safe place where they know it’s confidential it’s with someone they trust and they’re comfortable with which is all the more reason to be integrated into the department,” said Brown.

Lieutenant Dean said the officers who responded to Tuesday’s tragic shooting may never be able to unsee what they saw, but the program can help them realize it’s okay to grieve.

“It’s unfathomable for us as a community to ask them to push that off to the side and go back to work tomorrow, that’s not fair to them,” said Lieutenant Dean.

Officers in Sand Springs have also had the opportunity to talk with counselors in the past few days. They say they’re thankful so many different organizations have reached out to check on them since Saturday.