The grief police: in response to the events of Sept. 11, all members of NYPD must undergo mental-health counseling, raising concerns that the tragedy has turned into a bonanza for overzealous mental-health professionals

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Jan 28, 2002 | by Kelly Patricia O'Meara

All the mental-health professionals running this program are "volunteers" from Columbia University who will bill the New York City Police Foundation, a nonprofit organization providing $10 million for this mental-health counseling. Columbia is to keep no records on the officers who seek counseling beyond the introductory session.

Critics of this mandatory mental-health counseling tell INSIGHT they wonder whether forcing such counseling may, in fact, be harmful. Elliot Valenstein, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Michigan, says: "I'm quite skeptical of any plan that would require mandatory counseling for all 55,000 New York City police officers. I have no doubt that there are some police officers who are emotionally unstable, overly aggressive, prejudiced, under too much stress and so forth, and some of them might benefit from counseling. But if a massive mandatory counseling program is undertaken, I view it as highly unlikely that it would attract the caliber of competent counselors who would be able to help those who need help."

Valenstein continues: "I recognize that there may be problems dealing with the events of Sept. 11, but I think mandatory counseling is not the solution. There is the possibility that a mandatory counseling program would lead to a lot of perfunctory prescriptions of medication that would not be followed up adequately for adverse side effects. For example, SSRIs [selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors] tend to make some people more impulsive. This may be a good thing for depressed people, but there are obvious dangers of making people carrying weapons impulsive, and there are many other side effects of these drugs."

If NYPD officers are prescribed antidepressants, must they take them? Bill Genet, a spokesman for the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, tells INSIGHT, "It's a very involved process, but the department's policy is that they'll decide individual cases."

On the other hand, if the mandatory counseling really is anonymous, as the program has been described, how will the department know which of its officers are taking or have refused to take mind-altering drugs? While Genet makes it clear that he was not speaking for the NYPD, he says he understands and supports the decision for counseling. "This is" he says, "about anybody dealing with a traumatic event having a reaction. Trauma is a shock, and it's a shock to all the body's systems. The thing with these emergency workers is that they shut down the bodily shock because they have to get their job done, and that's why it's called post-traumatic stress. This accumulates, and there comes a time at which it all shuts down and stops."

Tana Dineen, a licensed psychologist and author of Manufacturing Victims: What the Psychology Industry Is Doing to People, tells INSIGHT, "I don't know why the NYPD is doing this. Other than appearing to be a civil-rights violation, it sounds like an introductory advertising session to lure in potential client/ patients. The police will be told they're suffering from mental illness, and they'll be encouraged to come forward and get the help they need. There are absolutely no data to support the idea that talking about tragic events helps, but there are data that show some people are harmed by talking about it. The idea will get presented, however, that if their feelings go untreated for too long they might need help or may be developing PTSD or some other mental illness. Counselors will tell them that they can help but, in reality, people can end up ruminating more about the negative things, worrying if they have some psychological illness, and become more debilitated."