RUMFORD — Police Chief Tony Milligan has announced his department has been awarded a $163,462 federal grant to provide training and services for officers’ mental health and wellness.

“This is a significant first step of taking care of our police officers who are entrusted to take care of our community,” he told selectmen at their meeting Thursday. “Today’s police work is very demanding and dangerous and it has become extremely difficult to find people willing to choose this career path. This is why it is paramount to invest in the dedicated men and women we have today providing public safety to ensure our community is a safe and secure place to live, work and play.”

The grant will pay for multiple Rumford officers to get highly specialized training endorsed by the International Association of Chiefs of Police at locations across the country, as well as other specialized training in Maine.

Nearly $15,000 will cover travel, attendance and materials, and nearly $54,000 in fringe and wages for the specialized training.

Almost $75,000 will be used to contract with a specialized law enforcement mental health clinician to come to Rumford Police Department to meet with staff individually on regular intervals to provide clinical and therapeutic support. An additional $20,000 will be dedicated toward recovery and self-care resources for the officers.

The grant from by the U.S. Department of Justice under the federal Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act will run through September 2025.

“Police officers see, and are forced to deal with, a lot of traumatic and highly stressful situations in their day-to-day duties throughout their career,” Milligan said. “Over time, this cumulative stress can lead to a whole host of problems which can have devastating consequences to the officer and to the public.”

The money is intended to help improve the delivery of, and access to, mental health and wellness services for law enforcement through the implementation of peer support, training, family resources, suicide prevention and other promising practices for wellness programs.

“Mental health is a big deal, especially for first responders,” Milligan said.

He said studies have shown the average citizen may experience one critical incident in their lifetime while police officers are likely to experience hundreds in a 20-year career. As a result, officers are nearly five times more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder than the average citizen.

Recent studies have found that law enforcement officers have a 54% increase in suicide risk, compared to civilians, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians. This risk is magnified for departments with less than 50 full-time officers, a category which includes the vast majority of Maine’s police departments.

Rumford has 14 full-time and two part-time officers, and one civilian, Milligan said. One of the full-time positions is vacant.

Milligan said law enforcement agencies across the country have seen the negative effects of cumulative stress, PTSD and vicarious trauma with their officers, but many have been slow to make changes because of limited resources, stigma or mindset.

“I attended a recent training seminar and learned about the devastating effects of cumulative stress all law enforcement officers experience,” he said. “It occurred to me that we spend a fair amount of money to keep police cruisers well maintained and operating smoothly, but do very little to help address cumulative stress with our own officers, and that is something that must be fixed,” he said.

Cpl. Bradlee Gallant was assigned to help Milligan develop a wellness program for the department and to find grants to  pay for it. They decided to create their own customized program and submitted the proposal to the Department of Justice.

Milligan said his department was the only law enforcement agency in Maine to be awarded funding. Two other agencies in New England were also awarded grants, he said.

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