Madison County Sheriff’s Office to provide wellness app

REXBURG, Idaho (KIFI) – To address mental health challenges among its staff, the Madison County Sheriff’s Office has launched a customized, confidential wellness app that will be available to MCSO personnel and their families.

Powered by Cordico, the leader in public safety wellness technology, the app includes a wellness toolkit addressing 60 behavioral health topics such as fatigue, suicide prevention and alcohol abuse, mental health self-assessments, and videos and guides on yoga, mindfulness, nutrition and more. In addition, the app provides contact information for local therapists who specialize in and have experience working with first responders and connects users with the MCSO peer support team and/or chaplains. 

Captain Mike Courtney, who was a leader on the project of the app, says, "It benefits our agency and it benefits the the public because we can have deputies that are ready to go and ready to be here."

Personnel and their family members will have confidential, 24/7 access to the app to ensure they have the resources they need in their most difficult moments – on or off-duty. Captain Courtney says that "because we're human beings, we can't just completely segregate everything out. So the more assistance that we can get to our deputies to you know, get some holistic healing or guidance in that for the whole their their family and themselves, that that benefits them."

“No one should ever feel blocked from accessing help at times of need due to their schedule or location or concerns about confidentiality, and that is especially true of our public safety personnel who dedicate their professional lives to responding to others’ emergencies,” Cordico founder and president Dr. David Black said. 

The sheriff’s office will utilize this technology to help personnel build resilience and avoid the negative long-term effects of high job-related stress. 

“The Madison County Sheriff’s Office is proud to adopt the Cordico Wellness App and prioritize the health and wellbeing of our personnel, their families and the community,” Sheriff Rick Henry said. “We want to be on the forefront of changing public safety culture when it comes to mental health and wellness, and leveraging this technology helps us do so in a way that works for our office.” 

The app will also provide a central hub for the public. Making the sheriff's office more accessible.

"It'll have links to all our social media it'll have links to our website, all the different divisions, drivers, license, patrol, detention. So all those commonly ask questions. It gives you a central place to then spoke out to and find those bits of information that you're looking for," sheriff's office PIO Sergeant Isaac Payne said.

He also says the public portion of the app will have the ability to give the public some safety tips as well.

"So as you go through the app, you're you're going to see a variety of things links to different things. But you'll also see a section that talks about safety tips," he said. "So it'll be tips to keep your home safe, driving tips, whether safety, all these different aspects that will keep you safer. Because what we found and is true statistically is that crime prevention pays off a lot in the back end."

They hope the app will allow for the office to provide the best aid and support to the public.