Slay The Toxic Dragon: Police Leadership Impacting Member Wellness - Paperback

Gravel, Sylvio (Syd): - Syd Gravel is a former staff sergeant with thirty-one years of experience with the Ottawa Police Service. He is one of the founding fathers of Robin's Blue Circle, a post-shooting trauma team of peers, established in 1988, and is still actively involved with them. Syd co-developed this group when the need for peer support became evident for officers involved in fatal or near fatal work-related events. This group has assisted hundreds of officers from all across Canada since 1988 and continues to do so today.Syd was diagnosed with PTSD in 1987 and has reached the state of consistent and sustained positive growth with his injury. In 1999, he was awarded the twenty-year Police Exemplary Service Medal and, in 2003, the twenty-five-year Police Exemplary Service Bar. In 2007, he was nominated by his peers and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police to be inducted into the Order of Merit in Policing, Canada. In 2020, he was awarded the Order of Ottawa for his lifelong service in trauma management and peer support development in the national and international policing communities. During his thirteen years of retirement, he has devoted all his time and energy to writing, speaking and consulting on trauma management and peer support systems for a number of police services, not only in Canada but also in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. He has appeared countless times on all forms of media. He has written and published 56 Seconds, How to Survive PTSD and Build Peer Support, and co-authored the book Walk the Talk with staff sergeant (ret'd) Brad McKay. This is Syd's fourth book on mental wellness, with Brad McKay and Dr. Barbara Anscheutz, to address toxicity in the workplace.In 2014, Syd developed a three-day curriculum to train peers in Canada. It was modeled after the guidelines set out by the Mental Health Commission of Canada. He is currently co-leading the Peer and Trauma Support Systems (P.A.T.S.S.) Team for the Mood Disorders Society of Canada. He also volunteered for two years as a street-level peer facilitator for Soldiers Helping Soldiers in Ottawa's homeless community. He currently volunteers as a board director with Community Housing Renfrew and as a front-line peer supporter with the Ottawa Police peer group. He has developed the three-day peer training curriculum for Transition to Communities and the content for the twenty-hour, on-line trauma management course for Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. He is also co-developing the four-day train the trainer curriculum for Oscar-Kilo, the National Police Wellness Group for the United Kingdom. Syd is the co-founder of Badge of Life Canada, in 2012, and proudly served as a senior police advisor for that organization for nine years. He is an advisor for the Haven Group. He volunteers hundreds of hours annually to support these two organizations in their endeavours to assist members from policing and corrections. He was the Canadian representative on the executive committee for the Global Mental Health Peer Network (GMHPN) from 2018 to 2021, and the 2020 regional representative for the Americas for the GMHPN.In 2016, he was nominated by the Mental Health Commission of Canada as a Canadian Champion of Mental Health.On a personal level, Syd is the 2018 Central Canada Gold Medal holder in Powerlifting. His spouse, Judy Gravel, is the 2019 Silver Medal holder for the Canadian Powerlifting Union Nationals held in Ottawa. At age sixty-nine, Syd is training to attend and compete in the Nationals and Worlds in Powerlifting in 2022 when he will be seventy. He has been married for forty-five years, is father to two sons and grandfather to three lovely grandchildren.McKay, Brad: - Brad is a Canadian municipal staff sergeant who retired in 2015 after thirty-three years of service with York Regional Police (YRP), north of Toronto. After a police-involved shooting in 1984, he began lecturing new recruits to help them prepare for their career ahead, which evolved into a volunteer initiative on the sidelines. He had a successful career primarily as a detective investigator. In 1989, Brad co-created a trauma team for his police organization and, in 1996, transitioned it-with Barbara Anschuetz-into the York Region Critical Incident Stress Management Team to serve first responders in his community and beyond. He enhanced the YRP wellness unit and created an in-house peer support team for his organization. After the 9/11 tragedy in New York City, he led members of his team and mental health professionals to support NYPD members there who were suffering in the aftermath of that tragedy.In his retirement, Brad joined with the beloved Canadian Grandfather of Peer Support-Syd Gravel-to co-author Walk the Talk-First Responder Peer Support. They provide valuable advice and, on request, investigate files where organizational toxicity is alleged to exist. Together, they deliver a curriculum that Syd built after the Mental Health Commission of Canada published their guidelines on peer support in 2013. Brad is a co-lead with the peer and trauma support services section at Mood Disorders Society of Canada. As a certified trauma services specialist (CTSS), he does clinically supervised peer support at the Trauma Centre in Sharon, Ontario. In 2019, Brad was honoured to be invited to the United Kingdom by the Oscar-Kilo organization, where he and Syd shared their knowledge of peer support and learned about the great work being done there to support police. Brad's success comes as a result of the kindness and collaboration shared by other organizations. He believes strongly that working together and sharing best practices benefit everyone. Brad also believes that the best peer support and wellness systems are those that are created by the members who benefit directly. Everyone who is a stakeholder needs a voice, and leaders who realize this and support the good work will soon see the benefits. Brad lives in Aurora and is the proud father of two daughters. Taylor is a family physician who, as a result of her upbringing, is developing a trauma-informed approach to family medicine in her practice to support first responder and other families in the community. His other daughter, Erin, is an honour degree graduate in biology who is studying forensic sciences. She is also the artist of the cover illustration for this book. Brad's strength comes from his inner circle of friends and family.Anschuetz, Barbara L.: - Barbara is a registered psychotherapist with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario. She is also a certified in eye movement and desensitization reprocessing (EMDR) therapist, and certified trauma treatment specialist (CTTS). Barbara graduated from a doctoral program in counselling psychology from the University of Toronto. She is also trained in cognitive behavioural therapy, trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and cognitive processing therapy, to name a few. Due to the many years Barbara has been working with trauma, she has been humbled by the numerous opportunities she has had to study with world leaders on the importance of safe, ethical trauma theory, protocols and treatment. In her current position, she is the clinical director of the Trauma Centre in Sharon, Ontario. She has a unique therapy practice in a sanctuary setting, with a devoted administrative team and trauma-informed therapists (e.g., social workers, psychotherapists and psychologists). With its specialization in trauma response, the centre works daily with first responders and civilians who have suffered adversity related to trauma.Barbara has been involved in community volunteer work in many capacities throughout her career. These include the board of directors of the Family Life Centre of York Region, founding board of directors for Victim Services of York Region, National Task Group on PTSD for the Mood Disorders Society of Canada, to name a few. In 1996, Brad and Barbara co-founded the York Region Critical Incident Stress Team, a volunteer organization that assists first responders after critical incidents at work. Barbara was the clinical director for eighteen years, also supporting other police agencies in trauma response. In addition to her clinical work with first responders, Barbara has also worked with local organizations in her community to deal with homicide, suicide, SARS, H1N1, etc. Earlier in her career, she was also involved in national and international disaster response at Peggy's Cove, 9/11, as well as Hurricane Katrina, and in family excursions to build projects with Habitat for Humanity.As the recipient of many awards in her career, those that relate to work with first responders and leadership have special significance such as the Excellence in Education Award; the Tema Conter National Public Service Award; In Celebration of Women, Protective Services Award; and the Badge of Life Canada, Warrior Award.Barbara is a strong advocate of servant leadership and mentorship. She has had the privilege of mentoring others from what she learned from Dr. Stephen Stokl, Dr. Muniini Mulera and Stan Snider. They have provided servant leadership and mentorship to her at different stages of her life and career. Although Barbara learned different skills from each of them, what they all possessed in their leadership roles was humility, integrity and kindness.Barbara is a proud parent of her loving son and daughter, proud mother-in-law of her daughter-in-law and son-in-law, and an especially proud grandmother to her three little grandchildren, who provide a constant source of wonderment and joy. She lives with her partner of fifty years. She is truly grateful to her family, colleagues and strong circle of friends for their support, encouragement, solace and enduring friendship and loyalty.