National Police Association Podcast with Guest, Tim and Chelsea Putney, Peer support for The Wounded Blue
Hi. This is sergeant Betsy Brantner Smith at the National Police Association, and this is the National Police Association podcast. You know, I've been thinking about this for about two years now, but I knew that I really needed to bring you two of my favorite Texans in the world here to talk about what it's like to be involved in peer support in our profession, what it's like to be catastrophically injured just doing your job, and what it's like to be married to a cop. So we got a lot to talk about, so I wanna bring in Tim and Chelsea Putney. And, welcome to the show.
Betsy Smith:We got a lot to talk about, don't we?
Tim Putney:Yes.
Chelsea Putney:So
Betsy Smith:I I gotta start with this because I I always ask everybody who's who is a cop or has been a cop, Tim. Why'd you become a cop?
Tim Putney:So I became a cop. My sister, I have two adopted sisters, one was sexually assaulted as a young child. Guy got to see firsthand how the officers worked her case, treated her, made a huge difference in her life, and I said, I want to be part of that. I want to do something like that. We didn't grow up in the greatest area.
Tim Putney:We had a lot of interactions with officers and never had a bad interaction. And so, one, it looked fun, and two, I wanted to make a difference in others' lives.
Betsy Smith:So it turned out to be pretty fun, didn't it?
Tim Putney:Absolutely. I have a blast. I still do.
Betsy Smith:So before we talk about your crew, Chelsea, gotta ask you. Why'd you marry a cop?
Chelsea Putney:I don't think I had a clue what I was getting myself into. My dad's a a fireman, and had been, you know, my whole life. And so I, you know, kinda grew up in the first responder, you know, household. But I I mean, honestly, really, I I I don't think I knew really what I was, like I said, getting myself into what to expect. I loved that, he'd have have the the ins and outs of what was going on in town and I, I like that part to just kinda know things that were going on that other people didn't know that didn't make the news.
Chelsea Putney:Other than that, I just love the guy. So I was like, okay.
Betsy Smith:So it's been quite a ride. Tim, talk about your injury. I mean, it's an extraordinary story that continues to affect your life to this day. Tell us about that.
Tim Putney:So I was at work on July 11 in 2017. I responded to a call of a kid trying to kill his grandmother. We were busy. It was shift change, so I answered the call. Was the only one available.
Tim Putney:And when I got there, it was just a complete disaster. What I know now that I didn't know before I got there was that it was the first time the kid had ever tried meth, and he had the superhuman strength. And during an altercation while trying to handcuff him, he had kicked me while I had him wrapped up. And I've fallen backwards onto a street curb with him on top of me and as soon as I hit that curve with my back, I lost a lot of feeling and had a lot of pain, in my legs and at the point, at that time, I didn't know how bad it was. I just thought it was like a stinger.
Tim Putney:Go to the hospital and didn't really get any answers. They kept me for three days. And then told me to follow-up with a specialist and released me with no answers. What we didn't know then was we were about to have the ride of our life fighting for treatment.
Betsy Smith:And this is the thing, and first of all, because you're sitting down so folks can't really tell, but you're not a small guy. And so, you know, when you're fighting you know, somebody, a young person, and you think, oh my god, you know, how come you couldn't get control of this guy? Because he was just crazy. He was so messed up, wasn't he? Mean, I've read so much about this, and it was just really crazy.
Tim Putney:Yeah, and it was nuts because his family was actually having a celebration. His brother had gone missing and had been gone for a while. They had found him deceased in a shed in a neighboring county and that's how they celebrated. They all got high and what I didn't, and he wasn't a small, I mean, was 15 years old whenever I got hurt, and he was six foot, two hundred pounds, just solid and I mean, he's young. Yeah.
Tim Putney:I was in the best shape of my life the day I got hurt and me and her ran marathons. I think that year, we had ran three already at that point and that we're training for more. So, I mean, I was he was just you know, they say that, you know, they have that stupid strength whenever they're meth out, and that's no joke.
Betsy Smith:So did you go back to work right away when they released you from the hospital?
Tim Putney:No, I was not, because I wasn't able to move around very well. I was trying to get back as soon as I could, but I knew I wasn't gonna be able to go back to the streets right away because I couldn't walk very well. So I think I was off about a month and a half while trying to get, figure out and get answers before I went back to light duty. I think I worked light duty as an investigator for about three months. The the agency I worked for, it wasn't a small agency but not super large but the building was not handicap friendly so there was no elevators and part of my job as an investigator, we go and check out evidence, you know, to work out, work the case and one day when I was, I mean, I had to go down the stairs to the evidence room.
Tim Putney:My leg that I was having issues with with no filling just completely gave out, fell down the stairs, and from that point on, I was off work until I had surgery a year later.
Betsy Smith:And you know, there's always this, and we talk about this a lot at the Wounded Blue, which is an organization we're all involved with now, we all think that if we get hurt in any way, our agency is going to take care of us, you know. We're all family, and now I know and you know that that's not always the case, is it?
Tim Putney:No, not at all. Whenever I went to the hospital, the first thing that they said was, Well, this isn't an emergency, and there's no neurosurgeons that will do the surgery with the workers' comp. And I'm like, that's not. Why? We're at a hospital.
Tim Putney:And then what I found out throughout the year, legal battle, was it was just all about saving money. And I really think they wanted us to give up because it would have been easier just to give up and have the surgery, but that's not right. And I learned what a true leader is and what they aren't at that point. What we learned, I think, the most was just because it's legal doesn't mean it's ethical because that's what we were always on, well, it's part of the law. We can do this because it's the law.
Tim Putney:That's just not right. And there was a lot of hurt, a lot of anger, a lot of betrayal, but at the same time, there was a lot of growth between our family during it.
Betsy Smith:And Chelsea, you're watching this whole thing go down. You've got kids. And again, as a police wife, you're thinking, again, this is my family. Right? This is you know, we've got our little family here at home, but then we've got our big extended blue family.
Betsy Smith:And did you share that sense of betrayal?
Chelsea Putney:Oh, yes. And, you know, I think for me, it just I always had this peace, you know, before his incident that if if something ever happened to him that we'd be taken care of that, you know, heaven forbid, you know, something as as tragic as him losing his life or just an injury either way, we we would be taken care of and that, you know, and it's I felt like what everyone's kind of making it seem like because we're asking for something special, you know, special treatment and here it was just trying I just want him to be fixed and we didn't know for the longest time just kinda how severe his injury, you know, was and when we left the hospital, I mean, he he couldn't get up and walk. And they just said, oh, you're just you know, you're gonna be sore. It'll be fine. You know, it'll get better.
Chelsea Putney:And, know, it never got better. In fact, it just got worse. And so, you know how he said he he fell down the the stairs at work. He fell in our driveway just taking, trying to roll the trash, you know, out to the curb and just all these things and they he had to, you know, start using a a cane and walking full time with a cane and sometimes with a wheelchair. It dramatically changed our family dynamics.
Chelsea Putney:Everything that we did, we had to really put some thought into it. Wasn't just simple like, oh, let's take the kids to the aquarium or, you know, just these things that we could do before, we couldn't just do. And, you know, it is the the doctors when he went to the, you know, several different doctors he saw, you know, they just wanted started out simple wanting like, you know, we just need more imaging. We need to see what's going on, you know, on your back. And workers' comp denied everything that was asked.
Chelsea Putney:And and so that's when, you know, I just watching this felt so, you know, helpless seeing him that just the normal, you know, things that he he used to do, he couldn't do anymore. He's just constant pain and having to sit there and just watch him in this state and feel so helpless. He couldn't speak out in regards into the, you know, with the media. And so I took on that that role. I just simply one one evening.
Chelsea Putney:I was just so frustrated and I went on social media and made a post of just really just asking for advice. Does has anyone been through this? Tell us what to do. We were just having all these roadblocks everywhere we turn around and you know, can can anyone recommend anything for us? At this point, we did just hire an attorney to help us with the legal part.
Chelsea Putney:For anyone to sell with workers comp, it's impossible to do it on your and it they make it that way on a on purpose. And so but there's so many deadlines, so many things that you have to meet and the common person just does not know how it works. And so you can you you basically can kind of get screwed over, you know, very fast without, you know, without knowing. And so, you know, we did hire an attorney for that and then, you know, when I I went on social media and just made this just this post for help and it just kind of blew up from there where it got, you know, shared a whole lot. I had a lot of some of friends that are were business owners, you know, sharing and everyone was tagging, you know, everyone in the post, you know, just from the the news and just state representatives, you know, just everyone.
Chelsea Putney:And so that's when kind of the news reached out to us, our local news, and it it it kind of like I said, just blew up from there sharing, you know, our story, which was the same time it's still so hard for us because we were very private people to begin with before this. I wasn't one that posted a whole lot on social media or just look at the food I made or look at us know at this or that it just you know I was never one of those persons and so it it was hard to be out there you know didn't know that they could just take pictures off your social media and you know broadcast them all over I didn't know that that was possible. So our kids were thrown, you know, in it, which, you know, as a parent, you try to definitely shield them as much as possible and, which our our oldest was 13 and our youngest was three at the time. So definitely our three year old didn't understand what was going on. But our 13 year old, those are already hard times, in general, being 13.
Chelsea Putney:And then going to school and having people, you know, talk about talk about her dad and, you know, just saying just same normal rude comments that teenagers do at that age. Was very hard times for just all of us in so many different ways.
Betsy Smith:So you end up basically in legal battle with your agency you actually ended up going to another agency, but you also got involved with the Wounded Blue and to the point where now, Tim, you've taken over the peer support team. Talk about the importance of peer support for first responders, especially in this type of situation where you're just feeling like we must be the only ones who've ever experienced this.
Tim Putney:It's kind of a funny story. They actually, because I was in a very low time when all this happened and whenever the Wounded Blue came in contact with Chelsea. I was on social media. I was not answering my phone. I didn't want to talk to anybody.
Tim Putney:And they reached out to her and she had made a comment to me one day before she went to work that, hey, somebody's gonna give you a call. Make sure you answer it. I didn't answer it. So, we were sitting on the couch watching TV that evening and she gets a phone call and then she's like, here, phone's for you and I'm like, what? I don't wanna talk to anybody and so, I was kinda just, I was kinda thrown into it which was the best domino effect.
Tim Putney:I mean, it took a while but it was the best domino effect for our family. She joined the peer team first and then about what a year later, I I I wanted to I saw how much it was helping her. So, I wanted to get into it and the reason I wanted to get into it because one, it holds us accountable to make sure we're taking care of our own stuff. Not gonna be able to help anybody else if you're not taking care of yourself. Two, because of the difference it made in our life.
Tim Putney:I wanna say my life because, you know, the Wounded Blue doesn't just have it for the officers, they have it for the spouses as well. She can tell you a lot better than I can, but I know during that time, I was not the nicest person. And it wasn't like we were able to vent to each other because at the time I thought I was the only one going through it. She was living her life is what I had looked at, but what I didn't know is how bad she was hurting and she had nobody to talk to. So I think the importance of the peer support team and the wounded blue in general is that we're not affiliated with any police department, sheriff's organization.
Tim Putney:We're completely a third party, not contacted, and we're very confidential. So, we're not gonna call your agency and be like, Hey, we talked to Officer so and so. We think he needs help. Or we talk to a spouse and she's saying this about her her husband and he's got an alcohol problem. We don't do that.
Tim Putney:We help the officers and the spouses not only with the peer support but if they need to find a mental health, provider therapist, we will help find one that is, competent in with dealing with first responders in that area. And then officers struggle with alcohol and substance abuse, just like everybody else. And we will help officers and their spouses get into first responder treatment facilities.
Betsy Smith:And that's huge, right? Talk about that for a minute because just because somebody has a degree, you know, they're a counselor, psychologist, or even a psychiatrist, doesn't mean they can deal with first responders, right?
Tim Putney:Right. I mean, think about the stuff that we see and we carry. You don't want to go to a therapist who just got on and you'd start telling her what's bothering you and you're traumatizing her, and then you just you traumatize her or him, you're like, Oh great, now I can't help.
Betsy Smith:We end up counseling the counselors
Tim Putney:oftentimes. Yes. And like a lot of times our spouses are better therapists than our therapists because they're used to it. They can take it, but it's not fair to them to listen to us vent all the time. So, it's very important, and I'm thankful I found a very competent one, and so did she, that you can tell them whatever, and they're not gonna be phased.
Tim Putney:And that's what we try to find for these other officers in other states because it's so important. You know, officers are only gonna try something one time before they give up because they, like, when I went, I was told, hey, you need to get help and so, I found a therapist. I was gonna go one time. Let's say I did it and like, it's not for me. It didn't work.
Tim Putney:They're, they don't, they don't get it and it was the first interaction I had where it was like somebody understood and didn't judge me because of way I felt. And I was like, I can go one more time. And now we're, what, three, four years into it and it's the best thing. I enjoy my therapy sessions. And so that's why we try to find somebody that's competent with first responders, because we know they're only gonna go once, and if it's not for them, they're going give up on it.
Betsy Smith:So, you guys have been on this journey literally for years, and now you're at the point where you're both involved in peer support and including in a leadership level. You also teach, you train, you lead sessions for the Wounded Blue. But on a personal and I guess professional level with the job, recently things have changed a little bit with your injury, right? Can you talk about that?
Tim Putney:Yeah. We were back in another legal battle with the city because I needed another surgery that was part of my injury. The city was saying, because it had been so long. Friday was our eight year anniversary of my injury. This started last year about August, September, and it has been a really frustrating journey again, and it was bringing up a whole lot of memories.
Tim Putney:Like, here we go all over again. So I guess it was in March. We had done a deployment, for the Wound of Blue. We flew back, and that afternoon, Randy Sutton, the founder of the Wounded Blue, called me and he said, Hey, if you were given the opportunity to go out to Washington, D. C.
Tim Putney:To have surgery, would you do it if they could fix you? And, you know, it sounded way too good to be true. Right. And at this point, was like, I was torn because it's I still felt like the city, it's their responsibility to pay for it, but at the same time, I'm getting worse. Like, last few months have been the worst I've felt even right after I got injured.
Tim Putney:Long story short, Ring's like, I'm gonna get you in touch with this person. They, you know, we're going to take care of your surgeries. And I was like, wow, okay. I was very appreciative. She and I flew out to DC.
Tim Putney:We meet with the doctors. They asked us to give them a full week of testing. One thing that has never been done and they couldn't figure out why, was when we went, they looked at my complete spine from my neck all the way to the side. The only thing that's ever been looked at is my lumbar since my injury. And they start telling us, what they thought was going on.
Tim Putney:Said they would follow-up with us the following week once they got the test results back. Didn't realize, I mean, knew I was in a lot of pain, but didn't realize how bad it was. And they said, we can fix you in three surgeries and it's not, we're not gonna patch you up until you need the next one, we can fix you. Those are words that we have never heard. Right.
Tim Putney:So I'm like, again, I'm like, this is way this is too good to be true. And then with these doctors, they're very good doctors and very popular doctors. It's like, long is it gonna take to get in? Like, well, you've been put on the Fast Track, so are you good to do it? And I think it was two weeks.
Tim Putney:It was really, really quick. Nothing ever has happened that quick. So we actually just got back on, the June, the June. I had three surgeries set up on my neck and, more fusions down in my lower spine. Best I've felt, mean, had three major spine surgeries, and it's the best I've felt after any surgery.
Betsy Smith:Yeah, it's such an extraordinary story, and in a couple of months, you're gonna be heading to Las Vegas to kinda kinda debut the new spring in your step, right, at the next Wounded Blue Survival Summit, where you're gonna be you know, you're gonna be running the peer team. You guys are gonna be speaking. Talk a little bit about what that experience is like and how it has evolved.
Tim Putney:The Winter Blues Summit is a one I would say it's a one of a kind training conferences. I go to a lot. I know you've been to a lot, and it's one of the most intimate trainings that I've ever experienced. Everybody's got something in common there. Whether you've been injured, we've all dealt with horrific scenes.
Tim Putney:And, you know, those take a huge toll on us as officers and our spouses that deal with us. So, at that conference, we have speakers from all over talk about how to deal with traumatic incidents or how they've treated traumatic, like dealing with people with traumatic incidents. And then you have the peer team there who's all been there, and I don't want say been there, done that, because we're still living it, but we're there to support those officers that are willing to take the first step to get help. There's been officers there. I think last year we sent, there were three that asked for help getting into treatment facilities.
Tim Putney:They went straight from the summit to those treatment facilities. And it's one of those where, yeah, you're getting training, but also you're actually taking care of yourself as well. I love it. I know my wife loves it. We got to speak last year and we're speaking again this year, of how we dealt with our trauma as a
Chelsea Putney:family
Tim Putney:and the impact it has on your kids. That's the thing, this training is not just for the officer, it's for the family as well. So they can bring their wife, they can bring their kids. It is in Vegas, but it is a very family friendly event.
Chelsea Putney:It actually saved our marriage a couple of years back. And it was the first summit that we were together both working for the Wounded Blue. And here we are, we had been helping out with the Wounded Blue, been doing the peer support, and we were not doing very well behind the scenes ourselves. And we've been struggling with, with a lot and here we were listening to another couple if they're talking about, about their journey, through the the her husband's, injury Hearing the whole time I was in there like, this is my husband. This is what we're going through.
Chelsea Putney:He's got so much anger. We actually had not started counseling at that time. That evening I gave him the ultimatum. I'm like, you need counseling for me to stay here and keep doing this. That's what led to finally him getting counseling.
Chelsea Putney:Me realizing that, okay, it's not just him. I need it too. Us both getting counseling. But that's what saved, us that, you know, it it was a lot of unspoken between us that we're both hurting. But, you know, I didn't want to burden him and tell him the things mentally going through my head that I was struggling and having a hard time seeing him the way he was and him struggle.
Chelsea Putney:I didn't want to talk to him, you know, about it. I was trying to be strong. I'm the big one. I'm I'm I'm the one that's kinda keeping everyone together between the kids and and him and, you know, the home life. I'm trying to keep everything together.
Chelsea Putney:And so it's like, can't show signs of weakness. And then he didn't want to put more on me he was looking at that you know I had enough and so he there's a lot of things that he didn't tell me I didn't know that you know I knew he was struggling on the mental health side but I didn't know how bad I did not know that he'd actually attempted you know, to take his own life at one point and he never shared that with me. I didn't know that and so, there's a lot just of unspoken going on, you know, with us and so, it it is what just totally changed our lives and saved our marriage. And then it's crazy for us to get to be on the other side and then us sharing our story.
Betsy Smith:Right, absolutely. Guys, where can people find more about you guys, about the Wounded Blue Survival Summit, about peer support if somebody's watching this who thinks they might need some help? Talk about all that.
Tim Putney:So there's a few ways you can contact the Wounded Blue. Like I said, you can do it completely anonymous. If you want to, email the WoundedBlue@woundedblue.org. If you go to the website, there's a SOS button on the bottom left of the screen. You can click that and it goes straight to our email.
Tim Putney:You could put very limited information that you just need help. And then somebody will email you back and you can do it that way or you can you can call us at +1 833 help and somebody will answer the phone. We have somebody that answers phone all the time. You can also message us. Our message from our Facebook also goes to our email as well.
Tim Putney:And like I said, you can reach out. We're also on the app PeerConnect for agencies that do have PeerConnect. Our entire peer support team and spouses are on the app PeerConnect. So, there's several ways you can reach us. The summit is the September 22 through the twenty fifth in Las Vegas at the Palace Station Hotel and Casino, and we hope that people join us because it will
Betsy Smith:I'll be there.
Chelsea Putney:Yeah. And
Betsy Smith:it's always a great time and it's a really life changing event. A big part of that is the two of you and the peer team, Tim, that you lead. So we appreciate what you do. We appreciate you sharing your story with us and spending time with us today. And if you'd like more information about the National Police Association, you can visit us at nationalpolice.org.
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