Key takeaways:
- Define your police wellness program before launching services: Start with clear, clinically grounded offerings and a simple access point to build trust and sustainability.
- Don’t rely on a 24/7 embedded clinician model: Train peer support and supervisors to respond, and provide multiple mental health resources for officers.
- Hire for emotional intelligence, not just police experience: Effective clinicians don’t need to wear the badge — empathy, humility and presence build credibility.
- Track data and maintain visibility without compromising confidentiality: Use simple tools to show trends and impact, and stay present in the agency through briefings and onsite visits.
- Scale your law enforcement wellness program with intention: Expand only when resources and staffing allow. Doing a few things well builds long-term success.
By Ashley Higgins, LCMHCS, LCAS
Let’s start with this: What you’re about to read is based on personal experience — hard-earned, imperfect and shaped by plenty of trial and error. I applied for my role as an embedded clinician at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) expecting to contribute to an existing wellness program. What I didn’t realize until I arrived in late July 2023 was that the program didn’t truly exist yet. The department hadn’t successfully established a framework for what comprehensive employee wellness should look like. I was handed a blank slate. After a few days of panic, I started to build.
Wellness is a buzzword in policing today, but there’s still very little written about what it actually means for employees or how to create a program grounded in evidence-based practices. With effort, you might track down a few SOPs or connect with generous peers willing to share their insights. But for the most part, employee wellness in law enforcement still feels like the Wild West. Knowing where to start is often the hardest part.
This guide is for anyone tasked with building a sustainable law enforcement wellness program from the ground up — whether you’re an embedded clinician, a police leader or a peer support coordinator. It’s for anyone who wants to build something that goes beyond decompression rooms and massage chairs. While those things might improve police morale, real officer wellness programming requires more. It takes structure, clinical grounding and a vision that can stand the test of time.
Whether you’re starting in a rural agency with limited resources or expanding services in a major metro department, the lessons I share here are designed to be practical, transferable and grounded in what’s worked — and what hasn’t — for us.
Lesson 1: Start with a clear foundation
When I arrived at CMPD, I wasn’t handed a program. I was handed a possibility. I knew I’d eventually have two additional team members — a second therapist and an administrative assistant — but there were no existing systems, no clear identity and no shared understanding of what wellness should look like. So I didn’t start by launching initiatives. I started by defining the foundation.
My first step was to decide what we would actually offer. What wellness services would be realistic, sustainable and clinically grounded for a law enforcement agency the size of CMPD? And just as important: How would people find us? How would they know what we do?
I outlined a clear, manageable menu of services: short-term consultations, therapy referrals, post-critical incident check-ups and training. These were proactive, accessible and clinically grounded supports we could implement right away and track over time. We wrote the model into a formal Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), giving the program shape and language that hadn’t existed before.
Then we established a single point of entry for all services: one phone number and one email address that employees could use regardless of who was on the team. Behind the scenes, we set up call forwarding and inbox rules so no request would go unanswered, even if staff changed. That decision may sound small, but it created something powerful: stability. It meant people didn’t have to learn who to reach. They just had to know how to reach wellness.
Just as critical was ensuring that when employees did reach out, they could trust the process. Confidentiality is the cornerstone of everything we do. I often say I answer to a power higher than the department — my clinical license. Like any therapist, I’m bound to report only the standard concerns: imminent harm to self or others, or abuse of vulnerable populations. Outside of those legal exceptions, nothing identifying is ever shared. Employees may choose to sign a release if they want us to speak on their behalf, but otherwise, our conversations remain private.
Even our reporting to the department focuses strictly on trends: the number of consults, types of referrals used and common reasons employees seek support (what we refer to as “precipitating events”). Surveys are fully anonymous — even we don’t know who said what. And importantly, our clinical team does not conduct fitness-for-duty evaluations. Those are contracted externally. The mission of our team is therapeutic support, not administrative oversight.
That was the turning point. We were no longer just offering wellness support; we had established a formal CMPD wellness program officers could trust, that leadership could support and that could grow over time.
Takeaway: Don’t rush into programs or services without first building a foundation. Define what you offer, create a clear access point and put it all in writing. A structured, sustainable system is what transforms good intentions into something that lasts.
Lesson 2: Don’t default to the 24/7 clinician model
A previous clinician at CMPD operated as a 24/7 on-call therapist. She earned trust but also burned out. Once the phone started ringing, it never stopped. That model wasn’t just unsustainable — it created dependence. Employees learned, unintentionally, that there was only one door to walk through. And if that person wasn’t available, neither was help.
We chose a different path: build a system that empowers, not one that revolves around a single individual. We train employees — especially supervisors and peer support members — to recognize signs of distress, respond with empathy and refer appropriately. Not every moment of struggle requires clinical intervention. Sometimes, the most powerful response is simply sitting with someone, listening and offering support once the emotional wave has passed.
We also normalize not panicking when someone is upset. Too often, well-meaning colleagues rush to escalate situations that may not need escalation. We help reframe that instinct. Not every difficult moment is a fire alarm. Sometimes, it’s just a conversation.
And when a clinician isn’t available, we ensure employees know how to reach other support — 988, Copline, our local behavioral health urgent care or the mental health ER. Multiple entry points make the system stronger. A healthy wellness program doesn’t rely on one clinician’s availability. It’s designed to work beyond that.
Could a 24/7 model work for a department with a robust clinical team? Absolutely. But when you’re building with limited staff, sustainability matters. Protecting the well-being of clinicians helps ensure the system endures.
Takeaway: Don’t build a program that hinges on constant availability. Train your people to be the first line of support. Empowerment, empathy and realistic boundaries lead to stronger systems and healthier staff.
Lesson 3: Hire the right people — not just qualified ones
“The only way they can help me is if they’ve been there before.” I’ve heard this sentiment more times than I can count. While the desire for cultural understanding is valid, I’ve learned through experience that lived experience in law enforcement is not the most important qualification.
In my effort to fast-track rapport and build credibility, I initially hired someone with a law enforcement background. I thought it was a strategic move that would signal legitimacy and help our program gain acceptance. In hindsight, I shot myself in the foot. While the background may have checked the box for credibility, the individual’s rigid mindset and “know-it-all” attitude created friction and slowed progress. It taught me that personality, humility and emotional intelligence matter far more than shared experience.
Here’s how I think about it: We don’t expect an oncologist to have had cancer in order to treat it. We expect them to listen, understand and offer evidence-based care. Therapy is no different. Effective support doesn’t require shared trauma. It requires clinical skill, empathy and presence.
Cultural competence isn’t something you either have or don’t — it’s something you build. Through time, presence and curiosity, someone without direct law enforcement experience can earn trust and become deeply effective in the role. I’ve seen it happen.
I’ve come to value curiosity, humility and the willingness to show up over any bullet point on a résumé. Our team shows up at roll calls, rides along with officers and attends division events. We lead with authenticity and never pretend to know what we don’t. We introduce ourselves as people first, therapists second. And that’s what earns trust over time — not whether someone has worn a badge before.
Takeaway: Don’t let prior law enforcement experience become a gatekeeper. Hire people who are coachable, grounded and committed to building relationships. Cultural competence can be developed. Attitude, willingness and authenticity matter most.
Lesson 4: Make wellness visible — in data and in person
Wellness work often lives in the margins — quiet hallway conversations, informal consults, check-ins after critical incidents. It’s essential, but it can also be invisible. And part of what makes it feel invisible is that much of it can’t be discussed openly. Because we prioritize strict confidentiality, we don’t share names, details or stories — even when those stories demonstrate real impact. That’s by design. Privacy is foundational to clinical care, especially in policing, and we protect it relentlessly. But it does mean we have to work harder to make our value visible in other ways: through data, trends and presence.
We started simply with an Excel spreadsheet. Every consult, debrief, referral and briefing is accounted for. Tracking the frequency of each service helped us quantify our reach, spot emerging trends and share resources more strategically. Just as important, it gave us a way to demonstrate our impact without breaching confidentiality. Over time, this data became a powerful tool in communicating our value to command staff and securing support for the program’s continued growth.
But numbers alone weren’t enough. We also leaned into employee feedback. After trainings or debriefings, we asked employees to participate in anonymous surveys about what was helpful and what wasn’t. Sometimes the responses were short: “Thanks for showing up.” Other times, they were powerful: “This helped me stay in the job.” That type of data translated our impact into language decision-makers could feel, not just see.
We also created recurring, low-effort visibility touchpoints. Monthly newsletters, flyers in briefing rooms and short wellness updates helped keep our team top of mind. These small, consistent reminders mattered.
One of our most effective visibility strategies was offering onsite wellness hours. By placing our clinicians in divisions throughout the city on designated days, we eliminated barriers like travel time and made accessing support feel more natural and spontaneous. For employees who might not take the step of scheduling a formal appointment, being able to stop by on a lunch break made a difference.
If you’re just getting started, don’t wait for fancy tools or elaborate dashboards. Track what you can, however you can. Collect feedback after services. And most importantly, make sure your presence is felt — not just your title.
Takeaway: Visibility builds credibility. Use basic tracking and simple feedback tools to show your work, and pair that with consistent, low-barrier presence. It’s not about being everywhere. It’s about being seen in the right places, often enough to matter.
Lesson 5: Scale with purpose, not pressure
Today, CMPD’s Employee Wellness Clinical Team has grown far beyond what I imagined when I started. What began with just three people is now a dedicated team of four full-time wellness staff, supported by two passionate lieutenants and a deputy chief whose leadership has made much of our growth possible. Together, we’re part of a multi-pronged initiative housed within the Office of Employee Wellness — with a long-term vision and real staying power.
We’ve expanded thoughtfully. In addition to our core services — consultations, referrals, briefings and post-critical incident support — we now offer a mental health reimbursement program, funded by our local police foundation, that makes outside therapy financially accessible for employees. We also launched a therapy dog program that blends internal resources with external partnerships: one department-owned dog and a group of trained volunteer teams from a local nonprofit, assigned to divisions across the city.
Our team plays a central role in consulting with peer support and chaplain programs, helping refine trainings and maintain consistent standards of care. Every new initiative we take on — whether onsite wellness visits, family outreach or critical incident planning — builds on the original foundation: clear services, sustainable staffing and consistent communication.
We have said no to good ideas we couldn’t yet support. Every yes carries a maintenance cost. Thoughtful restraint helped us grow without compromising the integrity of what we’d already built. Leadership trust was earned by delivering what we promised, showing our impact and scaling only when readiness — not pressure — made it the right time.
The most rewarding part of this journey is knowing that what I helped build won’t vanish when I step away. The structure will outlast me. Because it was never about me.
Takeaway: Resist the pressure to build everything at once. Focus on doing a few things well, then expand as resources and trust grow. Sustainable growth stems from a strong foundation, clear communication and the discipline to say no when needed. Build for longevity, not just optics.
Closing thoughts
If you’re just starting out, take a deep breath. Begin with clarity, not complexity. Focus on defining what you can offer, and prioritize sustainability over flash, relationships over rollouts. Track your efforts thoughtfully and maintain confidentiality — because if it isn’t documented, it didn’t happen.
Say what you’ll do, and do what you say. That’s how you build a police wellness program that lasts.
About the author
Ashley Higgins, LCMHCS, LCAS, is the Senior Behavioral Health Specialist for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. She created and leads the department’s Employee Wellness Clinical Team and spearheaded the development of multiple employee wellness programs, including the Clinical Care Access Program and the Paws for Duty therapy dog initiative. Ashley provides both clinical and strategic oversight to the Office of Employee Wellness. She is a licensed clinical mental health counselor and addiction specialist with over 10 years of clinical experience — more than half of which has been dedicated to serving military and law enforcement populations.
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