​People in each group must journal at least one other time outside of initial entry
Group #1 People in each group must journal at least one other time outside of initial entry and are graded both on your own content/capacity for reflection and evaluation but also on your engagement with others in your small group. (e.g., your additional journal entries do not have to be directly in response to others, but must reflect that you have read and are incorporating what you are learning from your peers and their perspectives). Police Suicide Prevention It has been made clear that discussing police suicide within law enforcement is frowned upon and something that officers do not express freely. When officers enter the police academy they are trained with the mentality they are not like the rest of the citizens, and they have been chosen with a higher calling to save others. “Part of the problem stems from a strong sense of denial among police persons that suicide is a serious problem. Denial is likely based on the socialization of officers into a perception of superhuman emotional and survival control” (Violanti, 2007). Law enforcement agencies need to be revamped nationwide pertaining to this matter. It needs to be made public within each department that it is encouraged to express how you are feeling, especially if an officer is headed in the direction of suicide. Officers that have been on the job for over five years will have difficulty accepting this, because they were trained to believe just the opposite and have lived their lives as a cop filled with pride so it would be so challenging to get those that are struggling with troubling matters to get help. But the veteran officers are the ones that need it most.“Males 50 years and older are at highest risk, while white females of any age at lowest risk. White males have the highest suicide rate of all demographic groups (Violanti, 2007).  As training take places for incoming officers, police suicide prevention awareness should be a required course with an examination needed to pass the academy. This helps to make it easier to accept and they are trained to know that it is ok to seek help. This sets the right type of mentality and becomes imbedded as part of proper training. Based on a study conducted by Ivanoff on New York Police Officers in 1994,“Police officers who participated in suicide awareness training stated that it helped to make them more aware of serious problems in themselves and other officers. Results suggested that suicide awareness training contributed to improved attitudes and possible increased seeking of help (Violanti, 2007). When symptoms began to show within an officers, such as depression, financial difficulties, aggression, anxiety, avoidance, and alcohol/drug abuse they should be required to undergo a suicide prevention program. This could lower the risk of committing suicide. Officers should also have to annually undergo a psychological evaluation to ensure officers are mentally healthy and if not be recommended for police suicide prevention program.