Retired police officer breaks silence over RNC dismantling horse therapy program
CBC
When the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary posted in late January about Bell Let's Talk day, a national corporate initiative to support people with mental illness, Kelsey Muise couldn't help but laugh at the irony.
The former constable retired months before the RNC espoused breaking the stigma in social media posts. Officers wore blue knitted hats and held signs saying, "Let's Talk."
Muise is now ready to talk.
"It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when people are going to start taking their lives around here," Muise said in a recent interview with CBC News.
Muise is breaking her silence because she says the force quietly dismantled its equine therapy program — an initiative that was meant to help fellow officers and first responders, and connect with the community. The collapse of the program is a symptom of a much larger issue within the force, she said.
Mental illness is not being treated appropriately, Muise said, and she fears for the officers who remain on the job.
"I knew that I was going to have hard, tough calls. I knew that there was going to be trauma and I knew that there was going to be things that I did not want to witness," Muise said of her career as a police officer.
"But I did not think that one of my biggest opponents was going to be my employer."
The RNC never publicly announced it was stopping the program, nor did it announce it had retired one of its horses — Dr. Rich, who was Muise's partner. Muise said the greatest hurt came when the RNC sent her partner, a Percheron, to another province without telling her.
Muise said she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in 2015, resulting from a culmination of events in her career. She was hospitalized because of her disorder and sought treatment in Ontario.
She thought her career was over. After 18 months on sick leave, Muise met with then chief Joe Boland, who suggested she work with the mounted unit.
She said it reignited her career and the work became her "passion" and what she believed was her "true purpose for being there."
Muise worked for three years with the mounted unit and trained to become an equine therapist. Horse-assisted therapies promote physical and mental well-being and are conducted with mental health facilitators. The program draws on a horse's ability to recognize human emotions and body language.
Muise guided a pilot project that provided equine therapy to first responders, including members of the RNC, and the wider community. She held multiple eight-week sessions with vulnerable populations who suffered from mental health issues, poverty and addiction.
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