Fryeburg Police Department

10/23/2026

🚨 The Shift Ends. But What About the Families Waiting at Home?

We talk a lot about the mental health of first responders. But we don't always talk about the people who love them.

❤️ The spouse who worries when they hear sirens.

❤️ The partner who handles everything at home during long shifts.

❤️ The child who notices when Mom or Dad comes home different.

❤️ The family member who tries to be everyone's support system while quietly struggling themselves.

A new 2026 systematic review examined 17 studies from 8 countries to better understand the experiences of first responder families.

🔎 Here's what the research found:

🔹 Families often carry significant emotional stress, including worrying about their loved one's safety.

🔹 Spouses and partners frequently take on additional household responsibilities while also providing emotional support.

🔹 Occupational stress can affect relationships, communication, and family dynamics.

🔹 Many family members feel their sacrifices go unnoticed.

🔹 Support from other first responder families is valuable, but organizational resources for families are often limited.

💭 One finding really stood out to me.

Families are often the first to recognize when a first responder is struggling.

They're the ones noticing changes in mood, encouraging conversations, and sometimes helping their loved one seek professional support.

But here's my question...

Who's checking on the family?

We cannot keep talking about first responder wellness as though the individual and their family exist separately.

If we're serious about proactive wellness, families need to be part of the conversation, too.

That means providing education, resources, peer connections, and support that extends beyond the person wearing the uniform.

Not every first responder family experiences these challenges, but the recurring experiences identified in this research deserve our attention.

❤️ Because behind many first responders is a family making sacrifices that the public never sees.

💬 First responders, spouses, partners, and family members: What's something you wish departments or mental health professionals understood about life at home?

📚 Research Reference:

Matoshi, H., Billings, J., Janse Van Rensburg, M., & Tekin, S. (2026). Exploring the experiences, views, and needs of family members of emergency response workers: A systematic review and meta-synthesis. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 17(1), Article 2713266.

10/07/2026

If you see this guy today, wish him a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

09/25/2026

Incredible collaboration and teamwork between Dirigo Safety, LLC, Maine Bureau of Highway Safety, and the Maine Chiefs of Police Association to make our roadways safer. Throughout the summer, law enforcement officers from 37 agencies across the state participated in saturation patrols to reduce impaired driving and reduce the risk of crashes.

Be the change. Be responsible.

09/24/2026

Scams are becoming more common and harder to spot. Join us on Saturday, November 7th at 10:00 AM for a Scam Prevention Presentation presented by the Fryeburg Police Department.

Learn about common scams, how to spot the warning signs, steps you can take to protect yourself, what to do if you’ve been scammed, and how family and friends can help.

📍 Details are in the flyer below.

09/18/2026

🚓 Mental wellness cannot be the employee's responsibility alone.

We often tell people working in high-stress professions to practice self-care, build resilience, exercise, sleep better, develop coping skills, and ask for help.

Those things have value.

But a 2025 scoping review examining psychological health and safety across the criminal justice workforce makes a much bigger point:

Protecting mental health requires shared responsibility across the system.

Researchers reviewed 150 sources—85 academic and 65 gray-literature records—and organized recommendations across multiple levels.

👤 INDIVIDUAL
Physical health, healthy lifestyle practices, and effective coping strategies.

🤝 INTERPERSONAL
Peer support, social support, and wraparound approaches to care.

🏢 INSTITUTIONAL
Fair workloads, adequate staffing, safe working conditions, workplaces free from harassment, mental health education, and cultures that support help-seeking.

🏛️ POLICY
Adequate funding and staffing, appropriate mental health benefits, and policies that recognize occupational psychological injuries.

One of the most common recommendations across criminal justice occupations was workplace mental health training—not simply to teach coping, but to reduce stigma, encourage help-seeking, prepare workers for traumatic incidents, and promote culturally responsive approaches.

The authors also identified an important gap: fewer sources addressed the larger structural issues contributing to psychological health, including labor shortages, inadequate mental health benefits, underfunding, and discrimination.

That matters.

We cannot continually expose people to unhealthy systems and then make resilience their responsibility.

Self-care matters.
Peer support matters.
Counseling matters.

But workload matters. Staffing matters. Leadership matters. Organizational culture matters. Policy matters.

Supporting the people who protect our communities requires interventions at all of these levels.

Wellness isn't just something we teach employees.

It's something organizations and systems have to help create.

Reference:
Canning, C., Szusecki, T., Hilton, N. Z., et al. (2025). Psychological health and safety of criminal justice workers: A scoping review of strategies and supporting research. Health & Justice, 13, 10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40352-025-00320-0

09/11/2026

Send a message to learn more

09/11/2026