Building Resilience for Those Who Serve

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other stress-related conditions affect many people, especially law enforcement officers, emergency responders, and military veterans. Finding effective treatment for stress and PTSD is very crucial, and will likely become even more so in teh future.

A key factor in managing stress – including the intense stress faced by law enforcement and emergency workers, and the stress after combat experienced by veterans – is developing resiliency (price-Sharps & Sharps, 2025).People naturally have different levels of resiliency,which affects how they handle stress,even in emergencies or battle. But it’s important to know that resiliency involves specific skills,and we can improve those skills. Like any other skill, these skills can be learned (Price-Sharps & Sharps, 2025).

Mental health professionals can help with this training. However, everyone involved needs to understand what makes a resiliency training program work. hear’s a brief overview of key parts of such training, especially for veterans, emergency workers, and law enforcement officers (see Price-Sharps & Sharps, 2025, for more details).

Any training, including resiliency training, starts with a strong understanding of the basics. Research shows that the best way to learn is to build a framework for understanding before practicing skills. In other words, it’s important for people – or trainees, as many first responders and military personnel prefer – to understand why they are learning something and how it works.

For trainees who have experienced a lot of ongoing stress (which includes many people, but especially veterans and first responders, including law enforcement), resiliency training should acknowledge this high-stress background. It’s critical to recognize the special effects of high stress levels.