Editor’s note: How does your agency measure up when it comes to wellness? Lexipol’s Wellness solutions help agencies deliver anonymous, 24/7 support, enhance peer support team readiness, and build a culture of wellness. Contact Lexipol at 844-312-9500 to learn more or request a demo.
Missing Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas morning or a child’s birthday is baked into 24/7 public safety work. In this edition of the Wellness Brief, Emily Hitchings and Greg Friese tackle how to talk families through that reality and how to keep the responder’s own wellness intact.
Hitchings’ first rule is candor.
“So the first thing that responders can do is just allow their families time to grieve that,” Hitchings said, noting that promising to get a holiday off only sets up disappointment.
Instead, Hitchings urges officers to reframe the event. “If Christmas is December 27, it can still be Christmas,” Hitchings said.
The payoff comes from being fully present — phones down, radio off — once that alternative date arrives.
Friese adds that schedule swaps can be a gift to co-workers and to oneself.
“Your time is a gift if you don’t have family commitments,” Friese said, recalling years when he and his nurse wife volunteered to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so partners with young kids could be home.
The pair also warns against using holiday shifts to dodge family conflict. Hitchings stresses the importance of nurturing family relationships and recommends an honest self-audit, peer-support check-ins and, when needed, culturally competent counseling as part of having less stressful family holiday celebrations.
Whether you’re on the highway or at roll call this season, the Lexipol Wellness app offers on-demand modules for family communication, nutrition and quick station workouts, tools worth bookmarking during the holiday season.
HOLIDAY BLUES | 5 ways to cops
“This is part of why we say families wear an invisible uniform. We ask them to also sacrifice a lot with us.”
About The Brief: Wellness Edition
The Brief: Wellness Edition video series explores the wellness implications of current events for public safety professionals. Each episode brings a timely conversation that connects unfolding events to the day-to-day realities of first responder.
