An evidence-based program in mindful stress resilience for first responders.
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For first responders, stress is in the job description.
Here’s what we know:
25 times
A law enforcement officer is more likely to suffer death and disability from heart disease than from violence on the job.
37% of firefighters experience some form of post-traumatic stress. Chronic stress has been linked to the six leading causes of death in America: heart disease, cancer, respiratory disease, accidents, alcoholism, and suicide.
As many as
die by suicide
More law enforcement officers than are killed in the line of duty.
As a police officer, firefighter, or EMT, you can’t escape stress. But what you can control is how you manage it.
That’s where RISE comes in. Sources: International Association of Chiefs of Police, American Psychological Association, warriorsheart.com
Studies show that existing stress-reduction programs are not as
effective for law enforcement officers. RISE, however, offers first responders the tools for mental preparedness as a pathway to resilience and optimal performance in the line of duty.
RISE is an evidence-based stress-resilience training specifically tailored to the unique stressors of first responders. Developed by Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in partnership with law enforcement agencies and frontline providers, the RISE program brings together more than a decade of research in mindfulness, resilience, brain science, and human behavior.
In this training, you discover firsthand how strategic stress-resilience tools can optimally benefit you, your staff, your organization, and those directly impacted by your work.
RISE is specifically designed to support • Improved situational awareness • Greater clarity and resilience • Improved social emotional intelligence • Better decision making through increased focus • Enhanced work/life integration. • Decreased burnout rates.
“Long time coming for many of us in law enforcement. Our culture craves personal wellness, along with professional wellness, and RISE excels at both.” —M. F., Hampden County Sheriff’s Department
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Essential Tools for Responding, Surviving, and Recovering RISE provides data-driven solutions to create a foundation for mindful community safety.
Through RISE, long-term,
RISE offers a multifaceted
sustainable change occurs at three set of learning experiences that levels: transcend traditional professional development. Personal Transformation First responders’ experience becomes more Instruction fulfilling as they integrate tools for self-care and service. RISE produces measurable increases in the ability to recover from everyday on-the-job stress, as well as traumatic events.
Discover a new model that supports both personal well-being and community safety. Learn the science behind mindfulness-based practices and the direct impact of stress on health and work/life integration.
Professional Transformation
Practice
Your intent to serve shifts as first responders develop and sustain new approaches to mental fitness and safety. RISE sharpens focus and supports optimal performance.
Transformation Throughout Organizations Retention and teamwork increase—leading to safer and more effective delivery of frontline care and services.
Experience the immediate impact of stressresilience tools, including breathing and meditation exercises, strengths identification, mindful listening, and movement.
Tools for the Long Term Take away an action plan that includes tools for enhancing personal wellness, new approaches to staying connected to your work, and ideas for cultivating organizational support.
We know RISE works. RISE trainings have been rigorously evaluated by scientists, including our research partners at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Individuals in high-stress professions who experience the RISE program report profound results—increases in resilience, mindfulness, engagement, and positivity. Our research outcomes have been widely pubished in peerreviewed journals, such as the Journal of Workplace Behavioral Wellness.
RISE mindfulness tools are proven to • Enhance mental fitness, making it easier to pay attention, stay calm, and improve situational awareness • Improve stress resilience in the moment and over time • Address symptoms of and recovery from secondary trauma • Enable better risk management • Reduce performance anxiety • Build positivity and mental clarity • Support health—mindfulness is linked with a 50% decrease in cold and flu symptoms and a 75% decrease in absenteeism.
Our research shows that RISE participants experience • 32% reduction in perceived stress • 13% increase in mindfulness • 10% increase in empowerment.
“No human was made to experience and process what we see on a daily basis. You go on one call and then another and another, and you never process the first couple calls you went to, and then there’s yet another call. Law enforcement officers almost always end up with high blood pressure—if you have 10 people in the room, eight of them will have high blood pressure. Suicide is also climbing among officers. What I learned at RISE is that one of the best ways to handle stress is conscious breathing. It’s the easiest thing that can be done between calls because it only takes a couple of minutes. Instead of allowing all that stress to build up, if you just sit in your car and do some breathing exercises and reset yourself, it makes a huge difference in the way you deal with people on your next call and how you feel afterward. It goes a long way toward making sure you’re an asset to the department rather than a liability. In my role, I’m responsible for all of the officers’ medical training, and my goal is to make sure everyone has the basic knowledge of how to use the breath to get calm and re-center. Police officers are Type A personalities, and sometimes they walk into a training like this with preconceived notions about yoga and mindfulness—that it’s going be sissy stuff for tree huggers. But once you break down those walls, they figure out that it’s helping them handle stress better. One of our officers was so inspired by RISE that she got her yoga teacher training certification at Kripalu. On the day after I finished the RISE training, I had my oral exam for promotion. Before I started each section of the exam, I took three deep breaths. It worked really well for me. I’ve been in the medical field since 1994, and it wasn’t until RISE that I realized I could lower my heart rate just by focusing on my breathing.” —Sergeant Donald Slimmer, Baltimore police force
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RISE can be delivered on-site at Kripalu, at the client site, virtually, or via a combination of all three. Program length typically ranges from one to five days, and can be customized to meet your organization’s needs. But RISE isn’t just a one-time program. It’s a transformation, driving lasting change through multiple, self-sustaining solutions.
RISE Facilitators Our expert facilitators bring years of experience in delivering mindfulness programming, and are trained specifically to offer RISE to first responders.
Aron Steward, PhD, MBA, RYT 500, is a forensic psychologist with expertise in violence prevention, health and wellness, alternative therapies, burnout prevention, and organizational change. As assistant director of Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center in Colchester, Vermont, she carved a path for staff to be trained in the RISE program, creating a significant culture shift toward mindful self-regulation. Change at the center has been evidenced by a measurable decrease in aggressive incidents and high-level interventions, such as restraint and isolation/ seclusion of youth. Aron has served on multidisciplinary emergency response teams for psychiatric crisis response and school threats with law enforcement in Los Angeles County, and at a maximum security women’s prison in New Jersey. She speaks regularly on vicarious trauma, human trafficking, systemic self-care for organizations, and occupational resiliency. Carl Rubino brings to his role nearly 20 years as a criminal prosecutor and a deep understanding of the real-world benefits of yoga and mindfulness. Carl is currently the juvenile delinquency criminal prosecutor in Essex County, New York, and is a former assistant district attorney of Westchester County, New York, where he served as a trial prosecutor of high-level undercover narcotics sale prosecutions and street crime prosecutions, as well as appeals. Carl’s work includes daily interaction with police, probation officers, and others in the law enforcement community, as well as teaching at the police training academy in Westchester County. He has formed a close working relationship with those engaged in various aspects of law enforcement, and has a deep understanding of the critical and stressful situations that police officers face on the job and carry with them.
Contact us for more information. 413.448.3300 rise@kripalu.org kripalu.org/rise RISE™ is a registered trademark of Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health. All rights reserved.