Happy New Year to all our amazing CPCA Full & Affiliate Members. All the best to you and your families in 2025. Thank you for being a CPCA Member. Here is a link from which you can renew your 2025 CPCA Membership: https://www.canadianpolicechaplainassociation.com/memberships
What better way to jump start the year than with a time of connection on Zoom through Chaplains Connect.
It's time for us to connect across the nation to gain insight regarding a team approach that is functioning well within an Alberta Government funded program known as Prospect Human Services. As police chaplains, we have known First Responders who have stepped away from their public safety careers because of Operational Stress Injuries; or, tragically continued to serve with their pain until overwhelmed to the point of suicide. We are aware of police officers who have committed decades to public service, experienced successful careers, only to suicide just prior to retirement or within a year or two of retirement. Transition is difficult when you have served in a career that forges a job based identity from an early age of adulthood.
Prospect’s Forces@WORK: Public Safety Personnel program is designed to address the unique challenges of leaving behind a career defined by public service. They understand the complexities of moving beyond the uniform, and they provide guidance through every step of transition. Whether overcoming physical, psychological, or emotional barriers, they provide the tools, support, and training to build a successful second career. Those who are eligible are municipal police officers, RCMP, Corrections officers, dispatchers, paramedics, firefighters, and military who serve or have served within the province of Alberta.
Our Chaplains Connect special guest Pattie Atwell is a Team Lead with this program. Pattie served as a Corrections Officer in Manitoba for 11 years until Post Traumatic Stress trauma took her out. She never thought her last day in Corrections in February 2017 would be her last day. Panic attacks and agoraphobia crippled Pattie's ability to function in Corrections. The fallout from PTSD left her unable to be empathetic or function in the role as a wife. Thus, a 25 year marriage to a Constable with the Winnipeg Police Service came to an end in 2022. Pattie's story doesn't end here; she has persevered and knows the value of a team approach to treating OSI. After receiving treatment and counsel, Pattie's purpose driven journey led her to a job with OSI-can in Manitoba. Then in 2023, Pattie moved to Edmonton to be part of Prospect Human Services as Team Lead for the Forces@WORK: Public Safety Personnel Program.
On January 16th at 11 AM Edmonton Time (Mountain Time), Pattie will share with CPCA members some of her personal journey which will provide police chaplains with valuable insight from a PTSD survivor who now serves those who were once in her shoes. Pattie understands the value of a team approach in providing care to persons suffering operational stress injuries. As an Executive Officer of the CPCA, I hear from some of our members who are experiencing symptoms of burnout and compassion fatigue in chaplaincy and ministry because they are single handedly taking on caregiving roles to police officers suffering from OSI. During an hour and fifteen-minute conversation I had with Pattie, I heard Pattie express several times that it takes a village to care for a wounded person, to nurse them back to health. Chaplains need to be part of a team of caregivers to avoid burnout and to ensure longevity of service. This is the approach of Prospect for those who serve or have served in public safety in Alberta. Pattie will share how it works and will also provide chaplains with resources to programs that are in place in other provinces across Canada. You will not want to miss hearing this articulate and well-versed woman and some success stories of Prospect. Pattie shared with me that her hope through offering her time during Chaplains Connect will result in a collaboration between Prospect and the chaplains of the CPCA.
This two-hour presentation is provided free to CPCA members. You must register for this event in order to receive the Zoom link. Please register prior to the actual day of the Chaplains Connect to ensure receipt of the Zoom link which I will send out through a separate email 24 hours in advance of the event. This is an educational presentation, not a certificate training session. Participants will not receive a CPCA certificate or have their training records credited.
Please consider joining me and other CPCA members across Canada for "Chaplains Connect" at 11 AM Mountain Time on January 16th; it will be time well spent. Click on the "Register Now" link below to take in this free event for our CPCA members.
Warmest regards,
Bruce Ewanyshyn
CPCA President
ICPC Director of Region 1
Bruce - I am no longer a police chaplain however i keep getting the invitations for the seminars etc.
It is too bad they were not offered when I first started 9 years ago. In fact in those years I had one call from the previous divisional chaplain. I felt left out if courses were being offered but none came my way. obviously it is very different now with the current divisional chaplain
i wish you and all the police chaplains across the country every success and God's richest blessing.
What a grand ministry you have & may many police chaplains and their families be richly blessed with the various courses offered. I might still be a police chaplain if…