WISCONSIN (WTAQ-WLUK) — Police officers, sheriff’s deputies, firefighters, paramedics — they protect and serve the people in their communities.
But who protects them when the stresses of the job become too much?
An effort is now underway in Wisconsin to make sure first responders have a place to get help.
Football fans know him as the face of the Green Bay Packers, but Jordan Love is an ambassador. The Packers quarterback lost his dad, a police officer, to suicide when he was a kid.
In a promotional video, released by LEDR, Tellurian, and Fairway Mortgage, Love said, “I think he would have benefited from a place like this to be able to go, share what he’s going through and get the help that he needed at the time.”
The “this” is a behavioral health and recovery center, a retreat facility specifically for first responders.
“In July, we had five deaths by suicide, four in law enforcement, one in the Department of Corrections,” said Mike Sasse with the Law Enforcement Death Response Team. He added, “So we started this idea of what would it look like to maybe not go to an agency because of a death by suicide, because we would have a facility that they can get treatment to either for mental health issues or addiction issues.”
Members of the LEDR Team want to open a one-of-a-kind facility in Wisconsin for first responders.
Lt. Brian Slinger with Brown County Sheriff’s Office speaks openly about his mental health struggles.
“Having the specialized place that we can go away from other things in our community, people that we may have to deal with in our community and a professional level would be very beneficial to be able to open up the officer’s ability to be open, to be able to feel a little bit more comfortable in sharing things with people that aren’t necessarily someone they deal with daily,” he said.
The team is working on the project has identified a property, that sits on more than 250 acres in Iowa County, west of Madison. The existing home could be turned into a 16-bed retreat and recovery center.
“We went and took a tour of it and said, this is unbelievable. This is like this is the treatment facility that we would have envisioned for and more,” Sasse said. “And here it is at a fraction of the cost that we have originally thought of.”
The team is hoping to raise $10 million to buy the facility and get the center up and running.
It’s an expensive venture that could be priceless in the end.
“Our goal is not to necessarily get them back into our profession. Our goal is to get them back into their families,” added Sasse.
People interested in donating can visit the HBR Treatment Center website.
