Old Dominion University and the Virginia Beach Police Department are launching an effort to train student mental health counselors by embedding them directly inside police departments and other first responder agencies.
Starting in fall 2026, selected graduate students in ODU’s counseling program will continue taking classes while completing a yearlong internship counselling police officers.
The program, called Frontline, aims to address a common barrier first responders say they face when seeking mental health care: many counselors do not fully understand the realities of law enforcement work.
Because of that gap, officers often spend time explaining the nature of their work before they can begin talking about stress or trauma related to the job, said Tom Seguin, clinical assistant professor and partnership director in ODU’s Department of Counseling and Human Services.
The new initiative is designed to close that gap by immersing counseling students in the culture and day-to-day environment of public safety work.
“There's going to be learning on two sides of the house,” said Virginia Beach Fourth Precinct Commanding Officer William Gervin. “The officers are going to learn a little bit more about what they do as counselors, and then the counselors are going to learn a lot about the police culture and the city of Virginia Beach.”
Gervin said the job’s unpredictable hours and frequent exposure to trauma make mental health support critical.
Officers may work long shifts, respond to violent incidents and repeatedly encounter people in crisis – experiences Gervin said can take a psychological toll if not addressed.
“I, in one of my job roles, pushed physical fitness,” Gervin said. “But one of those conversations that is just as needed is to be ready for this job mentally and to make sure that you're taking care of your mental health just as well as you're taking care of your body.”
First responders, including police, fire and EMS, experience some of the highest rates of stress and burnout among public service professions. National surveys estimate approximately 30% develop behavioral health conditions such as PTSD or depression.
Jessica Huffman, police wellness coordinator at the department, hopes the Frontline program will be something to be “replicated” across the region.
“Learning by immersion is really cool,” Huffman said. “There's universities all over the place, there's counseling programs all over the place. So, why not?”
Under the program, students will take a newly developed course at ODU focused on first responder mental health. The curriculum will cover topics such as trauma exposure in public safety jobs, how to build trust with officers and how to navigate the culture and professional realities of law enforcement.
The immersion experience may include observing police training, attending departmental programs such as the Citizens Police Academy and spending time at precincts to understand how officers work and respond to incidents.
Students may also participate in ride-alongs meant for observation, though they will not be involved in active police work.
Seguin, the clinical assistant professor in ODU, said the goal is to equip students with the skills and understanding needed to work with first responders and build trust with that community.
“We want to equip our students to be able to work in those fields, with those professionals, serving them as clients, and then also to branch out professionally and spread that ability to build community with our first responders as they go out and become supervisors or faculty elsewhere,” Seguin said.
Millicent Lee is ODU’s director of community relations and the founding director of the Frontline initiative.
In addition to partnering with the Virginia Beach Police Department, she said the university is also working with the ODU Police Department, which would likely allow for two students in the initial group.
Lee said the university is also in discussions with three additional agencies that could join the program, which could expand the number of student placements in future cohorts.
The long-term goal is to expand the program to first responder agencies across Hampton Roads and other nearby communities in southeastern Virginia.
