Two Tampa International Airport Police officers are among the first in the Tampa Bay area to complete a specialized mental health training program for law enforcement. Airport Police Officers Angeliesse Nestelwitz and Stephanie Pascali completed the year-long program, which included completing six college courses at St. Petersburg College. They were among the first group of 14 law enforcement officers from across the Tampa Bay region who graduated last week with an advanced skills certificate in applied mental health.
““It was a great experience,” the officer said. Nestelwitz.It was certainly hard work and required a lot of dedication and hard work, but the long-term benefits for my agency and passengers at the airport made it all worth it.”
The program is designed to equip officers with the skills to better recognize and understand how stress and trauma can affect fellow officers, with the hope that these two new graduates can help other officers across TPAPD who may be feeling stressed.
“One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from this program is the stigma surrounding officers not receiving counseling,” Officer Stephanie Pascali said. “Most officers are afraid that any type of counseling will make them ‘unfit for duty.'”
board member Nestelwitz and Pascali want to change that, and fortunately, they have the full support of Chief Charlie Vasquez, who was recently named president of the Florida Association of Chiefs of Police and has vowed to make addressing police mental health a top priority during his one-year term.
“As we gain a better understanding of the trends and impacts of officer mental health, it will be important to develop techniques and policies to help officers better cope with the day-to-day stresses of police work and beyond,” Vazquez said. ““Stephanie and Angeliez gained a new perspective on how police officers are affected by both traumatic events and the long-term effects of their profession. They gained valuable insight into the resources available to provide assistance and the importance of checking in on one another.”
Officer Pascali noted that 53 police officers have been killed across the country so far this year. “That’s roughly seven officers killed per month,” he said. “An officer can experience up to 900 traumatic events in their lifetime, while the average person has 10 traumatic events in their lifetime.”
With Officer Pascali Nestelwitz said he hopes to further his education in the area of mental health with the goal of helping other officers.
““One of the big challenges for law enforcement officers is the lack of culturally competent mental health counselors,” the officer said. Nestelwitz. “Unfortunately, most mental health counselors are not properly trained on how to support officers who have experienced multiple serious incidents.”
The goal of St. Petersburg College’s new mental health program is to create an educational path for police officers to eventually become counselors, so that police agencies in Florida have a network of culturally competent counselors for their employees.
Meanwhile, TPAPD is working on a proposal to create a peer support team within the police department. Nesterowicz said he hopes the system will be implemented quickly and then expanded to include peer support teams across the airport and available to all HCAA employees.
“This program has been great because it has given me better tools to help my fellow officers who are experiencing traumatic stress.” Nestelwitz “But the stress and trauma aren’t just limited to officers, so it’s also helpful for passengers and other HCAA personnel that I encounter.”
With Pascali executives Nesterowitz’s recent graduation ceremony!
