The Hobart Police Department was awarded $200,000 in funding from the Department of Justice to support officers’ mental health and well-being.
U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan announced the federal grant award Oct.19.
The Hobart Police Department will receive the funds to improve the delivery of and access to mental health and wellness services for law enforcement. The funding will help the department implement peer support, training, family resources, suicide prevention and other wellness programs.
“Congratulations to the Hobart Police Department for successfully securing this federal funding to support our dedicated law enforcement officers,” Representative Mrvan said in a press release. “I look forward to continuing to advocate for mental health resources for all of our selfless first responders and ensuring they have the support they need to perform their services to the best of their abilities.”
The grant is part of the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act program. The act was signed into law in January 2018 in recognition of the ongoing needs of law enforcement agencies to protect the mental health and well-being of its employees. The program funds projects that help increase awareness of effective mental health and wellness strategies for the nation’s more than 800,000 federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement officers.
“We are thankful for the assistance from Rep. Mrvan and excited to be able to provide the mental health resources to our officers, which we would have been unable to provide without this funding opportunity,” Hobart Police Chief Garrett Ciszewski said in the release. “Mental health for officers has been largely overlooked for years, and this grant will provide services to our officers who deal with many stressful and traumatic incidents in their careers.”
