Be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12) 615 373 8000 Crisis Line

The Serve & Protect mission:

  • To locate and facilitate trauma specialists who have familiarity with public safety professions and accept the insurance of the client;
  • To educate public safety about “Plain Talk About PTSD and Suicide” from the lowest rank and file to the top administration;
  • To advocate for public safety professionals
    • regarding inappropriate treatment from administrators as it pertains to PTSD issues.
    • regarding inappropriate condemnation of public safety professionals by media, activists, and politicians.

We pursue our mission through four core methods:

  • Education
  • Facilitation
  • Restoration
  • Advocation

Underlying core values:

  • We believe in the inherent and intrinsic honorable character of those who choose public safety as a career; we further believe that these brave men and women pursue this noble path to serve their communities, save lives, and provide positive role models for those they serve.
  • We believe that public safety careers come with specific pitfalls, specifically, witnessing traumatic and critical incidents that may leave residual invisible wounds, emotional scars manifesting in Post Traumatic Stress symptoms.
  • We believe that Post Traumatic Stress is treatable, and that the professionals can be restored and preserved in their profession; we do not believe that PTS is a mental disorder, rather, as the Alaska State Legislature so deemed, PTS is in reality an emotional injury sustained from the job.

Ginny lost her husband Jeff to suicide in 2011. We had the opportunity to meet with her and for several months, help Ginny and her children recover from that tragedy.

Mr. Michaels, if I would have not spoken with you on the 11th of January, I am not sure which road I have may taken with my grief. To know that someone cared about a complete stranger and could look at me with compassion in his eyes and feel the need to help me and my family gave me Hope…

Ginny, Tennessee

My wife had ordered me to leave. I could see no resolve, no future, no hope.. I decided to take my life and drove seventy miles to a secluded road and parked my car at a peaceful overlook, cried, and began the process of ending my life. I looked in the rear view mirror and saw a parked U.S. Park Ranger watching me and I couldn’t do it.  He didn’t know what I was doing, but God’s intervened and saved my life. A couple days later God sent another individual – through Facebook where I found  Serve & Protect’s Robert Michaels and made contact. Through his testimony and example I came to realize Serve & Protect helps individuals just like me find the hope I was seeking.  It has been a blessing to know I have this avenue for help.

Paul, Tennessee

Facts – Why we exist!

There are some things I am concerned about and, I’m confident you will agree:

First – in the news:

Racist hate groups like Black Gorillas, BlackLivesMatter, Nation of Islam, and Black Panthers each call for the murder of police officers.
BLM CALLED FOR ABOLISHMENT OF LAW ENFORCEMENT.
These groups now say they will kill Firefighters and EMTs.
Politicians embrace Black Lives Matter and reject law enforcement concerns.
NOW STAGGERING STATS.

In 2016, 64 law enforcement officers were killed by gunfire. Of those, a third were by ambush. Another 12 were murdered by vehicle.

Suicide among Law Enforcement stats are at best, estimates, ranging from 4 to 10 times the number lost in the line of duty with one report saying a police suicide every 17 hours.. Underreporting by media and agencies, and non-inclusion of retired officers makes it impossible to have accurate numbers. No one can be absolute.
Corrections Officers commit suicide more than double the rate of police officers, which is estimated to be 4 times more likely than death in the line of duty.
75 percent of our officers have been divorced – 87% of our firefighters!
25 – 40 percent of officers are involved in domestic violence
Correctional Officers have the second highest mortality rate of any occupation. A CO’s 58th birthday, on average, is their last.

PTSD rates among FireRescue can be as high as 38%, dependent on the intensity of death and injury they witness.
Emergency dispatchers experience distress on 32% of potentially traumatic calls, especially death of a child, suicidal call, and officer death.