The Police Resiliency Maintenance Program: POPPA's 9/11 Disaster Response is designed to introduce resilience as a highly valued asset within the New York City law enforcement community and to develop a standard operating model for building the resilience of emergency workers. The immediate objective of the program is to establish a peer-facilitated, psycho-educational forum for New York City police officers to effectively address routine work-related stressors, critical incidents, and personal stressors. Police officers who continue to be affected by stress resulting from 9/11 will be identified through this program and assisted in accessing appropriate mental health services. POPPA's resiliency program is a comprehensive service designed after a decade of careful observation, critical analysis, and continually honed best practices for stress management within the police community. This community is traditionally resistant to mental health services. By removing stress from the stranglehold of stigmatization, the program will assist officers in viewing stress as a normal part of life that can be successfully managed. POPPA's model will accelerate officers'recovery from large-scale disasters and other critical incidents, both past and future, and it will build officers'capacity to remain at peak performance levels. Protection of New York City's public health and welfare is possible only when police are able to carry out the full range of their responsibilities. The Resiliency Maintenance Program will be implemented by Peer Support Officers, who are NYPD officers trained by POPPA to serve fellow officers, and by members of POPPA's Clinical Panel, who are clinicians trained to work with police officers. Teams of Peer Support Officers and clinicians will provide interactive presentations at police commands, assisting officers in identifying their own stress levels, causes of their stress, and techniques for relieving stress. POPPA in uniquely positioned to offer this service because officers trust the organization. All of POPPA's mutually reinforcing, peer-implemented programs offer strict confidentiality. While the organization is autonomous and operationally independent from the NYPD, POPPA's work is strongly supported by the NYC Police Department and all five New York City police unions.
