Having retired from the West Valley Police Department in 2017, Stuart Palmer is no stranger to police issues. While finishing up his law enforcement career, he went back to school and achieved his Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Utah. After retiring from law enforcement, he worked as a licensed clinical social worker at the Westridge Academy Residential Treatment Center dealing with kids and families. 

In conjunction with the FY21-22 budget adoption, Kaysville City created a new therapist/counselor position to provide mental health support to individual clients who have been exposed to workplace trauma or who would benefit from immediate access to mental health treatment. The vision was for the position to facilitate referrals to proper resources in the community and find creative solutions to make public safety employees as whole as possible in the most efficient way possible. Palmer came across that job posting and thought “now that’s a clientele I could really connect with.”  He started in this role on November 1, 2021, and “gets to dress like a civilian, talk cop, and do what I do best – help people.”

This position joins two similar statewide positions (Salt Lake City and West Valley City). Palmer says he has met with both of those counselors and together, they are “pioneers paving the way into new territory.” Recently, they started working to help put together a presentation for therapists to help them try and learn to speak the “language of cop.”

When talking about a “typical day and what that looks like,” Palmer said that particular day he had met with two individual police officers for mental health therapy and to work through some things they were struggling with. From there, he went to a meeting with at Davis Area Technical College (DATC) where he is collaborating with their staff to put together a mental health program. The day before, he had a meeting with Davis Behavioral Health to collaborate with them for consumers who contact the Police Department because they don’t know who else to contact. He said he views his role as collaborating with the community and connecting those who need help with available services.

Asked if he could have used this type of service when he was an officer, Palmer said, “absolutely. I had a police officer friend who committed suicide and I never saw it coming.” He said it would have been nice to have this type of resource to help him deal with the issues in his heart and head. That is what actually led him to continue his career as a licensed therapist.

Palmer said years ago, there was a therapist from Blomquist Hale who lived in his neighborhood. He said they started talking and the therapist told him,“You really need to come to work for us because we don’t speak police officer and we don’t know how to best help them with certain words, feelings, situations, and terminology.” Blomquist Hale offers Employee Assistance Program services for multiple entities to help employees realistically address life problems. Before positions such as this one at Kaysville, this was the type of third-party provider who would have supplied counseling to first responders. 

Palmer described a situation before Christmas wherein an officer met a suicidal woman at the Kaysville Post Office. The officer didn’t really know how to help her (but he knew Palmer was on board), so he loaded up the woman and drove her to Palmer’s office. He was able to sit down with her and help. Together, they contacted Davis Behavioral Health and they were able to take her and work with her. Palmer feels this was definitely a positive resolution to this frequent type of situation.

Adding to his list of accomplishments, Palmer is also an approved therapist for the Fraternal Order of the Police (FOP). This professional association will cover the cost of an officer’s first four therapy treatments. He was also featured in the November 2020 West Jordan City Weekly as working with “Unbridled Hope” West Jordan horse therapy to help officers with mental health needs.

Officers should not have to deal with symptoms alone and now Palmer can help first responders cope with traumatic experiences and the stress that comes with the job. He looks forward to making this position as positive and helpful as possible, however that may look. It is definitely “a work in progress,” he said.