I am a regular working person like the vast majority of people. I work 40 plus hours as a Detective Sergeant conducting investigations of workplace violence concerns, which in my opinion is the greatest job ever. I have passed up other positions with higher pay to continue doing what I do for the government here in St. Louis, MO. I want to be the guy that is responsible for talking to a potentially suicidal person and help them get the support they need to survive their crisis. I believe that I can effectively train and educate others on how to help someone in an immediate crisis and get them to the professional help offered by most agencies or external resources if necessary. I accomplish this through the Mental Health First- Aid program (MHFA) which is a Worldwide recognized training to help people identify someone experiencing high stress levels, anxiety, depression, psychosis, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and drug and alcohol abuse. I work closely with our agency psychologist, who truly believes in my abilities to talk with people in distress and get them to the help they need. How I can best help you and your organization is that I am not a psychologist or highly trained mental health professional with a dr. in my title. No, I am a regular person that only knows how to talk to and help people in regular person terminology and explain things that we can all relate to which makes helping others much more feasible than them trying to understand doctor talk.
I have a family, a wonderful, supportive wife who also owns her own business and has supported me for most of my 30 years in the military. I am currently a Reservist in the U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Command and love that job as well. I have two amazing sons, one 13 and one is 7. One had his share of problems until he was about six or seven and has done a great job of adjusting. Our seven year old has much more severe anger related issues but we have a good idea how to support him and my wife was smart enough to recognize he needed professional help before I knew anything I know now about mental health problems and most importantly... recovery. He still has challenges but he, they, are both wonderful people.
Fortunately, there are 24 hours per day and I am so passionate about sharing what I have learned over the years and about spreading the good news that recovery is attainable that I only sleep about five to six hours daily. Right now, my business is part-time because I have a full-time opportunity to help people on an almost daily basis but I promise you that if you let me train your team in Mental Health First-Aid or consult your team to deal with an employee that has not violated any policies but has co-workers concerned or frightened, I will spend the time to help resolve your teams crisis and share my experience. Please contact me if you have any questions and to discuss opportunities to work together. Thanks for learning a little about me.
