STATEWIDE–A former Maine police officer is finding a new calling as an author. Lisa Beecher and her husband spent decades serving in law enforcement in southern Maine. Beecher’s book called ‘Living With Mr. Fahrenheit’ is a memoir that follows her husband’s battle with mental illness and the stigma that often exists for those seeking help.
Law enforcement officers are called to the unimaginable; car crashes, fatalities, abusive situations, and so many more horrific scenes when they respond to an emergency. Lisa Beecher and her husband served the Portland community for years as police officers.
“I detail a couple of those calls in the book where I noticed an increase in his bad dreams at night,” explained Beecher, a former Maine Chief of Police and now author. “But it was 17 years of shift after shift of traumatic scenes which every Portland police officer goes through.”
Beecher says her husband suffered a psychotic break.
“He spent two weeks at a Psychiatric hospital and came out with diagnosis and therapies and medications. He stabilized and went back to work for three years,” she said.
Beecher documents in her new book ‘Mr. Farenheit’ what it is like to have a mental illness and the fear and stigma that exists for those bravely willing to admit they need help.
“I thought this is exactly what my book is about traumatic exposure to the job and not feeling like departments are supporting us in what we need,” she stated. “We are those warriors, the devastation experts. We are the ones that run in while everyone else is running out. How do we reconcile that with our own humanness.”
Beecher admits there are police department taking steps to help strengthen officers and first responders mental health. However she says more needs to be done.
“There are chiefs doing a lot of work on this now. But we need more than EAP programs and peer support programs,” explained Beecher. “We need education what happens to the brain when it is exposed to repeated trauma.”
‘Living With Mr. Farenheit’ is now available at lisabeecher.com and area book stores.