The FITT Program Model

FITT is founded on the belief that law enforcement officers will choose to access effective mental health care if they are provided with:

• Peer support to overcome stigma, and to learn about mental health and treatment options
• Confidential treatment - to eliminate concerns about career impact and peer relations impacted by stigma, 
• Privately funded treatment - making treatment financially accessible; not requiring diagnoses and medical records to be shared with health insurance companies or law enforcement agencies. 
• Treatment delivered in time frames and with methods customized to each client’s needs. 
• Treatment provided by mental health professionals committed 
• to the highest standards of cultural competence and clinical expertise.

 June - August 2024

• National recruitment launch for clinicians, Law Enforcement/Public Safety Liaisons, and funding partners.

September - December 2024 

• Interviews and selection of Clinical Leads and Liaison Leads. 
• Launch Research effort #1 - Survey-Proof of Concept.
• Orientation and initial collaboration with FITT Clinician recruits, CLs, LEL/PSLs.
• Website and EHR for FITT.

January 2025

• Begin offering clinical services to funded clientele.
• Begin Research effort #2 - Efficacy of Client-Centered EMDR Intensive model for LEOs/related professions.

• FITT is a collective of therapists who are prioritizing the needs of first responders and striving to provide culturally competent services nationally.  
• FITT therapists commit to cultural competency standards:
  • Cultural competency trainings
  • Ongoing consultation with a culturally competent EMDR consultant (individual and group; frequency/type based on number of FITT referrals, and clinician need)
  • Regular input from Law Enforcement/other Public Safety Liaisons to ensure relevance and up-to-date information about law enforcement culture regionally and nationally. 
• FITT therapists commit to rigid clinical standards:
  • EMDRIA Certified or equivalent (Letters of Recommendation)
  • Competency with dissociation and complex trauma
  • Ongoing clinical consultation and professional development
• FITT’s Clinician Network will receive support, coordination, and consultation from state and regional Clinical Leads.
• Treatment providers:  apply to join our network!

• Help spread the word about this program to different departments within the Liaison's territory
• Receive information from clinicians about resources and societal trends from clinical staff and pass that along to colleagues.
• Contribute to FITTs cultural competency and research efforts.
• FITT Law Enforcement/Public Safety Liaisons receive support and coordination from state and regional Law Enforcement/Public Safety Liaison Leads.  Liaison Leads:
  • Update clinical staff about general issues that first responders experience so that these stressors can be understood.
  • Function as an intermediary between the first responders and the clinical staff at meetings and trainings.
  • Attempt to assist departments to grow / develop a community outreach program that allows citizens and police officers to empathize with each other. 

Law enforcement and public safety professionals:  you're invited to become FITT liaisons

• Client Centered: Treatment is tailored to each client’s needs, to ensure maximum effectiveness with minimum stress and life disruption.  The scheduling, frequency, intensity, duration, and methods of service delivery are adapted to meet the individual’s needs. 
• EMDR:  Unlike other treatments that focus on directly altering the emotions, thoughts and responses resulting from traumatic experiences, EMDR therapy focuses directly on the memory, and is intended to change the way that the memory is stored in the brain, thus reducing and eliminating the problematic symptoms.  EMDR is an acronym for Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing - named such because it originally worked via moving the eyes back and forth, similarly to how they move during the REM sleep cycle.  The REM sleep cycle is the way that our brain processes our everyday experiences; EMDR is thought to facilitate the same process for our traumatic or stuck experiences.  Now, EMDR is conducted using a variety of bilateral stimulation methods, including tactile and auditory devices or self-tapping. Research supports EMDR as helpful for PTSD, as well as anxiety and depression.  
• Intensive Treatment— Much of the treatment can be delivered in 2-6 hour blocks of time, scheduled for consecutive days and/or intermittently.  Intensive treatment delivers faster results with less overall time in treatment, than the hourly/weekly model.  Frontline workers cannot afford to be destabilized on the job - a risk when trauma work is done hourly/weekly, because activated, unresolved trauma material can cause emotional lability and a dysregulated nervous system impacting sleep, digestion, pain, and mood. 

• LEOs have strong work ethics, and jobs that often demand overtime, irregular shifts, and provide little PTO.  Thus, finding time to access mental health treatment as it is traditionally delivered (weekly/hourly appointment) is difficult.  
• Intensives offer acceleration in the process of EMDR while also condensing the time spent away from work.
• Reduced distractions from work and everyday life between sessions leads to improved focus, helping them not only return quicker to working, but with strengthened adaptive functioning which enhances capacity of job performance.
• Reduces therapy dropout rates
• Treatment goals are attained sooner, and with less hours spent in therapy overall, than via the hourly/weekly model.
• Focus on reintegration into the community, maintaining positive relationships both personally and professionally in their communities
• Focus on reconnecting LEO to their core values and strengthening their positive self-perception

• Outreach - FITT’s Law Enforcement and Public Safety Liaisons are active duty officers who engage in outreach to their peers:  working to combat stigma and educate about trauma and available resources.  Liaisons also guide and inform clinicians, to ensure that clinicians understand the regional law enforcement culture. 
• Intake - FITT’s intake process is centralized.  When a first responder connects with FITT to request services, FITT’s Clinical Lead team will do a thorough intake screening, to determine if any stabilization for risk factors is needed prior to commencement of EMDR; individuals in need of stabilization services (such as detox or psychiatric stabilization) will be supported in connecting to appropriate providers  Individuals who are ready for EMDR will be connected to therapists in the FITT network whose skills, availability, and location best meet the individuals’ needs.  This referral process alleviates the usual burden of an individual contacting many therapists only to find that many do not have open space on their caseloads, are or not a good fit. This burden is often so challenging that many people seeking therapy give up without finding a therapist, or settle for working with a therapist lacking the competence to skillfully treat their needs.  
  • Funding sources will pay a fee to FITT for each client intake/assessment/referral.  We find that this model aligns with our ethics better than a typical therapy collective model, which requires the therapists to pay dues to belong to the network.
  • FITT network therapists set their own rates.  Referrals are based on best fit for the client. FITT will invoice the funding source for therapists’ services.  
• Preparation is customized:  EMDR is an 8 phase treatment:  Phases 3-7, the reprocessing phases, are what most people think of when they hear “EMDR.”  Phases 1 and 2, however, are vital to ethically delivered treatment, so as to ensure that a client is prepared to get the most benefit from reprocessing. In typical therapy, Phase 1 and 2 are conducted via hourly/weekly sessions with a therapist.  With FITT, clients will have a choice as to what combination of service delivery works best for them;  some of the preparation work can be delivered via on-demand video learning modules or via peer support group - or clients can choose to do all of the preparation via hourly or intensive/extended sessions with a therapist. 
• The intensive is scheduled.  The number of days, duration of days, and location of the intensive will be determined by the client’s needs and preferences For example: a client may choose to take a week’s vacation, and travel to do their intensive in a location where they can hike or enjoy the beach after therapy; another client may choose to use their day off for an intensive, or to do several full or half-day sessions scheduled on days off.   The intensive can be with the therapist who worked with the client for Phases 1 and 2, or with a different therapist.  (Some FITT therapists do not do intensives - only the preparation and aftercare support; clients can choose to travel to a different location for their intensive.)
• Aftercare follow up support is also customized.  Intensive clients benefit from therapeutic support to debrief and integrate after the intensive.  A client may or may not require or desire therapy after the intensive:  Each client will be connected to an aftercare therapist and can determine with that therapist whether they wish to continue doing therapy, and, if so, at what frequency.  
• Additional intensives can be scheduled upon need/request.

Paula Soto LCSW, ERYT is FITT's Program Manager.   Paula founded FITT, and coordinates its operations and program development. 

William E Roberson III (BIll) is FITT's Public Safety Director.  Bill is an active duty police officer.

Catanna Roberson LMFT is FITT's Clinical Director.  Catanna is a Certified EMDR therapist specializing in first responder treatment.