Sheriff Leon Lott receives award from PTSD support group
June 9, 2016
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott and the Richland County Sheriff’s Department (RCSD) received the DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD from Project Josiah Restoration Ministries during ceremonies at the RCSD offices, Thur., June 9. The award recognizes both Lott and the RCSD for a new departmental conditioning program developed in-house and aimed at thwarting the onset of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) before Lott’s deputies ever hit the street.
Dubbed, CRITICAL INCIDENT AND PTSD AWARENESS TRAINING, the program looks at the various physical, cognitive, and emotional symptoms of PTSD, and features instruction in coping strategies; PTSD myths; truths; how to reduce, control, or respond to stress-reactions from critical events; the importance of family, friends, churches, and support groups in dealing with PTSD; as well as department and extra-departmental resources for the effected person.
“Sheriff Lott’s efforts battling PTSD through his innovative front-of-the-pipeline program are vital to the well-being of those who put their lives on the line for us everyday,” said Bobby Farmer, a U.S. Army combat veteran and CEO of Project Josiah Restoration Ministries, a S.C.-based non-profit support group for PTSD sufferers. “We at Project Josiah are committed to creating public awareness about the hard realities of PTSD – as well as mitigating PTSD’s impact on those suffering from it – in the wake of experienced trauma. We also recognize the Sheriff’s creative and proactive efforts in conditioning his department’s deputies on the front-end physically, mentally, and emotionally as they deal with all types of stresses in real time and in the future.”
Farmer says Lott’s PTSD conditioning program “should serve as a model both for law-enforcement agencies, nationwide, and the military services in preparing first responders, emergency response teams, paramilitary personnel, soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines for any and all physical and psychological trauma-risks. In fact, there is an obvious parallel between what these deputies are doing everyday and what infantry soldiers are dealing with overseas.”
Col. Bill Collier, U.S. Army (Ret.) – a personal friend of Lott’s for 26 years and having worked with the Sheriff during that time in a variety of criminal justice and law-enforcement capacities – says he’s “not at all surprised” that Lott’s dept. is the agency that initiated this program. “He [Lott] is a very forward-thinking, deliberate leader,” says Collier. “He recognizes the importance of dealing with PTSD before it becomes a problem, and he believes peer-to-peer counseling is the best way to address it.”
Col. Steve Vitali, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.) agrees. “Perhaps the most effective component of Lott’s innovative program is that you have battle-tested veteran officers teaching new deputies,” says Vitali.
Innovation and the well-being of his deputies have long-defined Lott, who upon assuming command of the RCSD, 20-years-ago, began establishing a culture of high-speed physical fitness within his department that today serves as a model nationally, even among foreign police agencies. And just as physical fitness requires hard training and conditioning, “so too does mental and emotional fitness,” says Lott. “Conditioning is key. That’s why we’re tackling PTSD on the front end before it strikes.”
[Visit the Richland County Sheriff’s Dept. at http://www.rcsd.net/]
