Make the pathway clear.
What support exists, how to reach it, what happens next, what remains private, and which exceptions apply.
For resiliency officers, wellness leaders, and peer-support leads
Make support fast, private, and usable.
Your job is to make the path understandable, connect the responder to the right resource, confirm that the handoff worked, and bring system failures back to leadership without reporting the person.
01
The role in one view
Reduce the friction.
Warm referral, practical navigation, timely follow-through, and another route when the first resource does not fit.
Report the barrier.
Bring wait times, access failures, supervisor problems, and resource gaps back to leadership without disclosing who sought help.
02
The support map
Coverage that matches the work
A responder should not have to find the system while in crisis.
Build and test the pathways before they are needed. Know who answers, how quickly, what the responder will pay, and what happens if the first handoff fails.
Sleep and fatigue
Screening, education, sleep-disorder evaluation, shift-work support, and a route for urgent fatigue concerns.
Pain and physical recovery
Early assessment, physical therapy and rehabilitation access, function tracking, non-drug options, and injury follow-through.
Mental health
Confidential trauma, depression, anxiety, grief, relationship, and crisis care with responder-competent clinicians.
Substance use
A genuinely confidential pathway for alcohol, opioid, sedative, stimulant, and other substance concerns before employment fear blocks care.
Peer and family support
Trained peers, family education, relationship resources, financial or legal navigation, and a clear boundary around the peer role.
Urgent safety
A trained response for immediate risk that is distinct from routine wellness navigation and clear about confidentiality limits.
03
Role boundaries
The wellness role can
- Explain available resources and privacy rules
- Listen to the responder’s stated need
- Provide warm navigation and practical help
- Confirm that the connection worked
- Escalate urgent safety concerns through the defined pathway
- Report system barriers in protected form
The wellness role should not
- Diagnose or provide therapy without the proper clinical role
- Investigate conduct or gather information for discipline
- Make fitness-for-duty, firearm, assignment, or promotion decisions
- Send private details to supervisors or command
- Promise confidentiality beyond the written rules
- Replace urgent clinical or emergency care
04
Ten-question readiness check
Run this against the current system
Can responders use what the department says it offers?
Any “unknown” is a useful finding. It identifies a rule, resource, capacity, or trust problem that should be resolved before asking people to rely on the program.
- 01
Can a responder ask for help without command learning that they asked?
Yes / No / Unknown - 02
Is the wellness leader’s role written, trained, and distinct from therapy, investigation, discipline, and fitness for duty?
Yes / No / Unknown - 03
Is there a live path for sleep, pain and function, mental health, substance use, peer support, family needs, and urgent safety?
Yes / No / Unknown - 04
Does the responder know what is private, what is documented, who can access it, and which exceptions apply?
Yes / No / Unknown - 05
Can someone confirm that a referral worked without learning the content of care?
Yes / No / Unknown - 06
Are participation and nonparticipation protected from routine employment consequences?
Yes / No / Unknown - 07
Do small units, rare events, and short time windows receive adequate reporting protection?
Yes / No / Unknown - 08
Are supervisors trained to respond to a request without diagnosis, stigma, retaliation, or unnecessary disclosure?
Yes / No / Unknown - 09
Does the department measure trust, access time, failed handoffs, and service capacity—not only utilization?
Yes / No / Unknown - 10
Is there a visible process for correcting a privacy failure, poor referral, harmful supervisor response, or program barrier?
Yes / No / Unknown
05
A reliable handoff
- Listen
Start with the responder’s stated need.
Keep the conversation focused on the help being requested unless the defined urgent-safety pathway is needed.
- Explain
State privacy and role limits first.
Explain what is recorded, who can see it, how follow-through works, and which exceptions apply.
- Connect
Make the handoff practical.
Confirm availability, cost, location or telehealth access, responder competence, and what the person should expect next.
- Follow
Confirm the pathway worked.
Ask whether the connection was completed and useful. Measure the handoff, not the content of care.
Authoritative implementation resources
Related guidance
Make privacy part of the service.
The governance standard defines individual-command separation, access, prohibited uses, aggregation, vendor controls, and accountability.
Open the governance standard