I have a teenage cousin who very seriously wants to go into law enforcement as an adult. I’ve seen some posts on here mention some mental health related things can disqualify a person from ever doing that.
He once made a suicide threat to a friend after a very bad experience when he was around 14-15 and they called 911. Police and EMTs and such showed up and very much recommended that his parents take him to the local psychiatric ward, and they did.
He was not committed or held involuntarily; he spoke to a doctor about the situation and they determined it wasn’t a serious threat, and let him go back home that night. Could this disqualify him for the rest of his life?
Just don’t want him to get his hopes up if this is going to follow him through life and make it impossible. Thanks for any advice!
Ps. he is in therapy, but not on any medication, it was a very situational issue.
Edit: I edited some bad wording that made it seem like the psych ward visit wasn’t optional; it was, and his parents agreed and took the advice they were given at the time to bring him in.
Comments
It could.
But here’s the actual important thing.
LE is not a job known for making people HEALTHIER.
He needs to focus on growing up, and having a healthy emotional life.
If LE “insisted” that he go to a psych facility of any type he almost certainly was committed.
Law enforcement can be very tough on your mental health. If you don’t have or can’t develop some very good coping skills it will definitely be a problem, so starting out with already having issues is not promising. Because of that applicants are very carefully screened, which includes a thorough psychological screening. If he can pass that, he has a chance. If not, he’ll have to find something else.
No, it won’t DQ him for life, but they will need to have a good decade between this threat and the present day to show they’ve grown up. If he’s 26, has 6 years on the military and a honorable discharge, the threat he made at 14 will be irrelevant. If he’s 18 and fresh out of high school, yeah, it isn’t happening.
But here’s the thing. If you need therapy to manage your mental health as a regular thing, this is not the right job for you.
Law enforcement, alongside with every other first responder job, will drag your mental health through the dirt. You deal with events like the one you describe in your OP on a daily basis, with rotating schedules that don’t let you catch rest, constantly deal with the absolute worst of society. It takes a heavy toll on your MH to have to tell a dad his daughter overdosed, to respond to the same beaten wife for the 30th time knowing she won’t want to file a report, to see abused and neglected kids handed back to their parents, you get the point.
Do not get into any kind of first responder job if your mental health is not good. You will be a liability and a risk to your coworkers, who rely on you.