Bluefield Police Department Detective Kevin Ross speaks to local and national law enforcement about steps to take during a suicidality situation during the Power In Peers training program at the Wood County Resiliency Center on Friday. (Photo by Amber Phipps)

PARKERSBURG — Local and national law enforcement gathered at the Wood County Resiliency Center for the final program day of Power In Peers, hosted by the Fraternal Order of Police on Friday.

The program equips local law enforcement with crisis training for various situations involving mental health and stress management.

The attendees are trained to be able to take what they learned from the program and apply it to others in their departments. The target audience includes officers, staff employed by law enforcement departments, police chaplains and mental health clinicians involved with law enforcement agencies.

Fraternal Order of Police National Director of Wellness Services Sherri Martin said the class trains law enforcement on active listening, assessing suicidality, and bridging the gap between officers and mental health clinicians.

“Peer support serves as a bridge and a lot of times an officer may not need the services of a professional mental health provider, they might just need somebody to talk to about the stress they’re facing,” said Martin.

About 30 local and national law enforcement officials gathered at the Wood County Resiliency Center for the Power In Peers training throughout the week. (Photo provided by Bill Minear and Beth Bailey)

There are Power In Peers training sessions in places like Florida and Arizona as well as the session in Parkersburg.

“This is the 14th national program federally funded by the COPS Office of the Department of Justice and this is the 14th training class we’ve put on,” said Martin. “We’ve now been in 14 different states.”

Martin said one of the goals is to build a network between agencies and mental health clinicians so everyone is working together and standardizing the way officials respond to mental health situations.

Throughout the week, about 30 individuals attended classes taught by law enforcement and mental health officials.

The final day of the program included classes and practical testing.

Mountain State Educational Services Cooperative Director of Public Service Training Bill Minear speaks to Power In Peers program attendees about self-care and supporting peers at the Wood County Resiliency Center on Friday. (Photo provided by Bill Minear and Beth Bailey)

Martin said when they graduate they’ll be provided with training materials so they can spread the information within their departments and earn a certificate for completing the program.

Ryan Black, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 79, said this is a great way to not only support local police but encourage officers to seek help.

“We have people from all over bouncing ideas around about how to better this program and how we could all be better peer supporters to our colleagues and coworkers,” he said.

Black has been in law enforcement for over 10 years and is currently with the Vienna Police Department. He said this is a huge benefit for the community.

Eric Berrier is a captain at the High Point Police Department in North Carolina and said he researched the program himself and wanted to attend.

“I was seeking out training to help prepare myself for the role of peer mentor within my department,” said Berrier. “It’s led me to Parkersburg.”

Over the course of 26 years, Berrier has been in a variety of positions like patrol officer, detective, task force officer, supervisor and more. He said what he’s learned this week can be applied into any of those positions.

“I’ve learned different techniques and strategies to assist other officers dealing with problems both personal and professional,” he said. “This helps us become a little bit better at what we do.”

The majority of the attendees were from Charleston, Vienna, Parkersburg, and Bluefield. There were also a handful of out-of-state individuals attending the program.

Corporal Dave Jacobs is with the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office in Maryland and said he had never been to Parkersburg before.

“I like it a lot and haven’t had a bad experience,” said Jacobs. “Everyone’s been great here.”

He said he’s looking forward to bringing back everything he learned and applying it to his job and peers. He said their office had a correctional officer that went through this program last year and learned a lot.

“We’re going to apply the principles from the book but what I find good about these classes is to be able to talk to people from all the agencies and see what they do,” said Jacobs. “They might have an idea or something that we never thought about.”

The classes are collaborative and focused on discussion-based topics like what to do in suicidality situations and who to contact. The attendees could then take the skills they learned and apply it and teach it to their peers.

There are upcoming programs throughout the months of January and February. For more information on Power In Peers, visit https://fop.net/officer-wellness/power-in-peers/

Amber Phipps can be reached at aphipps@newsandsentinel.com