Taken collectively, these seven pathways encompass a range of opportunities for a whole-of-system solution to a very real problem in policing that extends well beyond and well ahead of any specific occurrences of death by suicide.

We hope that police and association executives, boards, and mental health service providers will embrace these opportunities and work together on the specific actions we propose below.  We believe a new policing culture can emerge where the full cycle of prevention, recognition, appropriate disclosure, care and treatment, recovery and reintegration can occur with greater openness, greater success, and without repercussion to anyone facing mental health challenges whether due to operational or organizational stressors, or from any other cause inside or outside of work. 

And, we hope that every police member, sworn and civilian, will bring the same courage that they bring every day in service of others, to embrace and thrive in this new and more open culture.  We hope that current and future members will remain visible so that others can assist them, and will remain fully connected to their families and friends as well as to the calling they have chosen.  We know it is a calling they value, for life.

Finally, we hope the foregoing discussion and the 14 specific recommendations that follow below will inspire the comprehensive and collaborative action on police member mental health that is urgently required in Ontario.