CopShock, Surviving Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

COPS BATTLE EFFECTS OF TRAUMA
HELP POSSIBLE

For Immediate Release

Thursday, June 10, 1999

-- Innocent high school students and a teacher in Littleton, Colorado, were murdered. Tornadoes indiscriminately killed dozens in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Tennessee. The bombing in Oklahoma City destroyed many lives. What do these deaths have in common? Despair and helplessness felt by survivors, families and friends.

A group we rarely think is harmed by the devastation is law enforcement officers. Along with other emergency services people, they are the rescuers in our society. But often they suffer as much as the survivors. And they suffer silently, behind closed doors.

Throughout their careers, cops experience shootings, beatings, suicides, decomposing bodies and dead children. As a result, as many as one in three cops may suffer from trauma's most debilitating consequence-Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Why are a quarter of cops alcoholics? Why do some take drugs and anabolic steroids? Why is domestic violence among cops more than double the national average? Why do more than twice as many cops commit suicide than everybody else? Often because police officers can't cope with the aftermath of trauma.

Nightmares, flashbacks, uncontrollable anger, concentration problems, emotional detachment, avoidance of people and places... These are some of the signs of PTSD, a dangerous psychological condition that could lead to depression, suicidal thoughts, addictions, eating disorders as well as job and family conflict.

What can be done about a condition for which few police officers seek help? A condition that destroys careers and lives?

In CopShock, Surviving Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), author Allen R. Kates offers solutions on how to prevent or manage PTSD symptoms, what he calls CopShock. Basing his findings on six years of research and over 200 studies, Kates prepares police officers for the aftermath of horrific trauma.

In true stories of police officers trying to cope with PTSD, he portrays the repercussions of assaults, shootings, drug taking, alcohol abuse, combat, terrorism and suicide. He helps officers and their families understand PTSD's devastating effect on their lives. As part of the solutions, he describes more than 200 support sources for healing and recovery.

Allen R. Kates, BCECR, is a journalist, writing coach and conference speaker. As a member of the American Academy of Experts In Traumatic Stress, he is Board Certified in Emergency Crisis Response (BCECR).

Recommended by more than 20 trauma experts, CopShock is an easy-to-read guide for officers and their families. The Police Unions Membership Assistance Program of the New York City Police adopted CopShock as its training manual for peer supporters (cops who help troubled cops). The San Francisco Police Department uses it in its police academy to teach rookies the dangers of trauma. John Jay College of Criminal Justice made it mandatory reading for students taking forensic psychology. And the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation features the book at its worldwide seminars.

The book additionally benefits retired police officers and their families, police recruits, war veterans, corrections officers, paramedics, firefighters, nurses, doctors, security guards, crime victims-anyone suffering from trauma.

Half the people reading CopShock are non-cops because PTSD may affect anybody who experiences trauma. People who lose a loved one suddenly, patients diagnosed with breast cancer or those who wake up during surgery are candidates for developing PTSD. Readers around the world are benefiting from the stories and resources in CopShock, countries such as Canada, Australia, England, Iceland, Sweden, Scotland, South Africa and China.

To order CopShock, readers can call toll-free in the USA at (888) 436-1402. Foreign or special orders should contact Holbrook Street Press, P.O. Box 399, Cortaro, AZ 85652. (520) 616-7643. Sample chapters are at CopShock.com. E-Mail: CopShock@Copshock.com

Press here to order CopShock