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American eHealth Collaborative Part II - April 2017

Mark Cronin
Director

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The League is pleased to announce that we’ve successfully completed the first phase of the LAPPL Wellness Program! The team at the American eHealth Collaborative, led by CEO Jimmy Baldea, spent nearly a month on-site, and performed personalized implementations. We, together with the NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association, are now actively contributing non-identifier research data, to the American eHealth Collaborative’s Bi-Coastal Police Health Research Study. This study, as a reminder, will serve to help participants, as well as all present and future police officers nationwide.

We’ve received a lot of positive feedback from our participants. We’ve received reports that the wellness team is professional and courteous. They’re responsive to our members’ needs, and they try to accommodate our members as best as possible. They’re clinically and technologically knowledgeable, and they address equipment help desk issues in an efficient manner.

The League has allowed the wellness team to use our facility for implementations and equipment storage, and we’re candidly impressed by their level of dedication, starting their implementations as early as 9 a.m. and continuing throughout the days and into the evenings, sometimes ending as late as 2 a.m. (to reach out to some of our later-working shifts). Throughout their use of the League facility, they’ve set up fresh, healthy refreshments, then demonstrated respect to “our LAPPL home” by cleaning, sanitizing, scrubbing and also by packaging up waste shipping boxes and separating Styrofoam for recycling. They are truly passionate about
everything they do.

The implementations of this first phase were performed in stages. Several of our earlier implemented members have already reported improvements in their health. League Delegate and Hollenbeck Division Detective Stan Young shared his experiences at a recent Delegates Meeting, and stated that he’s continuing to live up to his nickname, “Forever” Young, with the help of the American eHealth Collaborative’s innovative wellness plans. The League shares in the excitement of this news, and we want to continue receiving your feedback. Moreover, we’re looking forward to hearing about the individually tailored benefits that our participants will soon benefit from. My own experiences with motorcycles had prompted me to inform both Jimmy Baldea and American eHealth Chairman, Howard A. Rusk Jr., about the neck and back pains that motorcycle officers specifically experience. American eHealth researchers (including Dr. Alecsandro Neonakis, a former federal officer who enrolled in medical school and became an M.D.), together with the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation at New York University, and with other leading groups have begun to develop prevention strategies and best practices in treatment of injuries faced by these officers

We’re at the cusp of this innovation. As is, there are very few, if any, established preventative best practice protocols for the health and wellness for male police officers. There are even fewer for female police officers, and almost none for police-specialty work. How does one deal with pains and injuries that are brought about by wearing a helmet for an entire career? Is there a way to realistically address diet compromises that are part of every day and every night of police life? Can one bear children, or go through later biological changes in life, while maintaining a successful career in law enforcement?

We’re glad to see that several people have become real proponents of our Wellness Program. We’d like to thank all of the delegates who have disseminated this information to the officers they work with. We’d like to thank all of the participants who have shared their positive experiences with their fellow officers. We’d also like to extend a special thanks to certain people who have gone above and beyond to spend time with Jimmy Baldea and his team, and to educate them about police-specialty work… this praise should include officers such as Sgt. II Kathleen Matthews at the LAPD Police Academy, Sgt. II Steve Rousell and the entire Air Support Division, as well as PIII Alex Delieuze, PIII Paul Avila, PIII Dean Monteleone, and Sgt. II M.J. Carter, from the Southeast Training Unit, and all of the detectives and the Gang Unit from Southeast. Again, everyone’s input helps this endeavor grow and become successful.

Everyone’s input also helps to establish these and other best practices in police health:

  • New health care education for cadets and recruits
  • First nationwide police wellness protocols for Air Support Units
  • First nationwide police wellness protocols for Motorcycle Units
  • First nationwide police wellness protocols for other police specialty work
  • First nationwide police wellness protocols for males, broken down by age ranges
  • First nationwide police wellness protocols for females, broken down by age ranges and life stages
  • First nationwide police wellness protocols for marriage health
  • First nationwide police wellness protocols for financial health (to be overseen by Veteran NYPD Sergeant Dennis Ostermann, controller of Sergeants Benevolent Association, who also became a CPA)

We appreciate that all this is being done in strict confidentiality, without marketing and without sales. This is truly being done to help officers.

Starting the Wellness Program in baby steps has made its implementation successful. Designing it from the ground up, specifically for police, has enabled officers to accomplish their health goals. As the token phrase goes, let’s not retire with “a shoebox full of medicines.” I look forward to continuing to report the progress of our Wellness Program.

If you’d like to add your name to the list for consideration for the second phase of our Wellness Program, please send an email to Jimmy Baldea at [email protected].

If you need anything 24/7, don’t hesitate to reach out at [email protected] or on my cell at (661) 510-6129.

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