VICTORIA POLICE OFFICERS RECEIVE TRAUMA RESILIENCY TRAINING
Wounded Warriors Canada (WWC) is proud to begin the delivery of Trauma Resiliency Training (TRT) in Victoria today to officers with VicPD.
Developed at the University of Victoria by Dr. Tim Black and Alex Sterling, the WWC Trauma Resiliency Training is designed to teach organizations that trauma resiliency is the result of individuals and organizations working together in an ongoing effort to manage the effects of trauma exposure. Participants learn that traumatization is not an inevitable consequence of exposure to trauma but rather an ongoing risk of the job that, when managed, reduces the likelihood one will be injured.
TRT is a train-the-trainer program whereby selected officers from VicPD will receive three days of clinically facilitated training to form a TRT Peer Team. Once trained, the peers will lead the manualized training to their colleagues across the organization. Ultimately, through members receiving TRT training, the objective is to have VicPD staff receive the most recent and relevant trauma education, have opportunities to learn, practice and hone trauma-management skills, and work to ensure trauma-informed social support becomes the organizational standard.
“We recognize the intense burden that our officers carry in responding to crises of all kinds, and we see the effects of that trauma on our staff every day,” said VicPD Chief Del Manak. “The Trauma Resiliency Training by Wounded Warriors Canada provides our officers with skills to manage post-trauma response, and to empower them to better understand some of their own experiences. Our officers selflessly and tirelessly focus on the safety and well-being of the community, and this training is an important opportunity for them to turn that focus on themselves to improve their own well-being and resiliency.”
“Trauma-exposed professionals, such as police officers, work under conditions where both physical and psychological injury are accepted and well-understood risks of the job,” said Dr. Tim Black. “TRT is designed to provide individuals in trauma-exposed organizations with knowledge, skills and tools to help mitigate the risk of on-the-job exposure to traumatic events leading to traumatization. Simply put, exposure to trauma in these professions is inevitable but traumatization doesn’t have to be.”
