Joining Forces Wellness Week 2015

This week is "Joining Forces Wellness Week", in remembrance of Veteran's day, Nov. 9th -13th, 2015.  The Joining Forces initiative was launched by Jill Biden and First Lady Michele Obama in 2011.  This year the initiative is sponsoring a series of webinars directed toward healthcare providers.  These webinars are designed to teach providers more about veterans and improve their healthcare.  Continuing education credits for attending are available, sponsored by several academic institutions.

The press release on Joining Forces Wellness Week.
Go to this link to sign up for Joining Forces webinars this week.

The Defense Center of Excellence (DCoE), which focuses on psychological health and traumatic brain injury (TBI) has webinars on veteran health care and health care improvement available for "on demand" viewing.  Check out their website for more information.

In remembrance of Veteran's Day 2015, thank you to all who have served and the families who have supported them and continue to support them.  Peace to those who have passed and the loved ones who remember them.

For more on resources and support for the military family:
Free Stress Counseling resources
The Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program
Combat Operational Stress Continuum
Family Liaison Officer/Ombudsman/Key
Blue Star Mothers, Blue Star Mothers and Adaptive Clothing (sew much comfort program)
Military OneSource
Female Vet -specific Resources
Minnesota's ADAPT parenting program
Strengthen your Marriage Resilience and FOCUS program
CREDO, Chaplain-led programs.  See CREDO Facebook page for most recent info.  Specific to marriage and family.  See this military marriage retreat resource article here, which also talks about Army's Strong Bonds, a cousin to the Navy's CREDO.
Military Family, Keep your Relationship Strong, Military OneSource for families
The D-Stress Line for Marines (free) and more resources for adjusting to State-side Life
The Family Medical Leave Act and Caring for your Wounded Warrior
Warfighter Sleep Kit
The Joining Forces campaign, 2012
OASIS program, Navy and PTSD
Sleep Resources, Kids having insomnia?
Free Stress-Relief Acupuncture Clinics, AWB's Military Stress Recovery Project

Pain, personal crisis and healing

When and how a personal crisis brings healing.

In complementary medicine, we talk about "healing crisis".  This is a positive thing, though it feels far from it when you are in the middle of it.  Old healing traditions, which include Traditional Chinese Medicine, do not stop "healing crisis" when they start.  We do our best to encourage you and support you through it.  But we are not enough.  Only you, the one going through the crisis, can have this; this experience belongs to you.  And you need to reach others and have lots of support while going through this.  I am doing a poor job of explaining this. 
Glennon Doyle Melton of Momastery.com does a much better job of explaining what "crisis" and the healing that can come from it is in her blogpost, "Begin Again".





Other resources:
Free Counseling Resources for military and dependents
Military OneSource  1-800-342-9647
The D-STRESS LINE or 1-877-476-7734
Veterans Suicide Prevention Hotline 1-800-273-8255
National Hotline 1-800-273-TALK

Building Resilience with Soldier 360, a program for Soldier-Leaders

Soldier 360 is a project out of the DCoE, the Defense Center of Excellence.  It is a great program to teach soldier-leaders about resources available to them, their families, and their soldiers.
In my opinion, it helps to fulfill the Army Pain Management Task Force's goals of "focus on the warrior and family-sustaining the force" and "synchronize a culture of pain awareness, education, and proactive intervention".

Check out this recent article about the Soldier 360 program, published in army.mil and written by SSG Bryan Dominique in June 2013, "A 360 approach to leader development at JBLM".

Over the past year I have been privileged to be a guest speaker for the local Soldier 360 classes offered nearby.  It has been wonderful to work with the soldiers, all NCOs (that's soldier-leaders for you non-Army folks), and the instructors.  Soldier 360 is a leader's course that focuses on building resilience while teaching comprehensive soldier fitness  It gives soldiers tools and resources for mind-body-spirit fitness for themselves and their soldiers.  The classes have a variety of topics that include (as a short list):  biofeedback, relationship-building, mindfulness, learning the new PRT (physical readiness training) variations, stress management, substance abuse red flags and resources, and chaplain resources.  It brings order to the various support groups and resources available at most installations to help soldiers deal with issues and build resilience that includes Army Medicine, ASAP, MFLC, the Wellness Center, ACS (Army Community Services), and Chaplain services.  The course is based on the adult-learning model, so the focus on any class is learn-by-doing or active engagement in the course topic (lots of question and answer sessions).  As a guest speaker, I give a talk on Traditional Chinese Medicine (acupuncture) and non-drug pain management options.  I am grateful to my volunteers, particularly Jessica Martens, EAMP, of Sound Acupuncture and Daniel Cashman, EAMP, of Seattle Asian Medicine and Martial Arts who help me give demonstrations to the class on Traditional Chinese Medicine.  Jessica and Daniel help me with auricular acupuncture demonstrations, Tai Chi demonstrations, and help field the many questions.


My Soldier 360 Volunteers! 
from left to right:  Jessica, Daniel, and Megan

I encourage any NCO to make time to attend the course when it comes to your installation, or encourage the NCOs who work for or with you to attend.  Check out the links to the articles below or the Soldier 360 facebook page for more details.

More articles on Soldier 360: 
Soldier 360 teaches holistic healing, published in the Army Times, April 2011
Soldier 360 program helps JBLM soldiers adjust to post-deployment life, published in the JBLM-Patch, February 2013.
Soldier 360 provides resiliency training to soldiers, spouses in Europe, published on army.mil, April 2011.
Free Stress Counseling Resources

For more on the Army Pain Management Task Force, see the related blogpost.

--Megan

Homecoming Preparation Between Deployments

There are many useful articles and some books published on preparing for a servicemember's homecoming.  I recommend any articles or resources put out by Military OneSource.  I found These Boots (and audio CD) by Jacey Eckhart to be a great resource for a female military spouse.  Most resources from Military OneSource are free to family members of a servicemember.  Also talk with your FRG (family readiness group) and Ombudsman.  Ombudsmen receive special training and a huge book of resources to prepare for homecoming.

I will list more resources I have found useful at the end of this post. 
The theme everything comes down to for homecoming advice is this:  communication.  Communicate with your spouse all the expectations each of you has for homecoming and the weeks and (sometimes) months following.  Do not be vague.

I like how Bridget Cantrell, PhD, says it in her book, Souls Under Siege,
"For the Warrior:  When, or before, you get home, communicate to your loved ones your desire and need to spend time working out, studying tactics, upgrading your gear, or whatever else you do to maintain readiness.  Let them know ahead of time that you need to keep yourself ready to be a warrior once again in the future, and that you need time with your comrades.  What you are doing is showing your loved ones and friends that you care about them, and you are giving them notice not only that you will be doing this, but that it also generally does not include them.  This is a courteous gesture and will be much appreciated.  As difficult as it may be, you must also keep in mind how spending most of your free time away from your family will affect your relationship.

"For the loved one(s):  Practice your own form of readiness.  Do your homework and find out as much as you can about how a warrior stays ready.  When your warrior gets home, communicate to them that you know they have the need and desire to stay fit and ready to return to military duty.  Ask if there is anything you can do to help them come up with a good schedule and strike a reasonable balance between readiness time and family time.  By creating this balance, you will come to a healthy meeting of the minds and avoid many hardships and misunderstandings that can happen between deployments.  For the adventurous spouse or child, perhaps even asking to work out with your warrior from time to time could be both fun and bonding.  (It is amazing how many of these troops enjoy showing others what they have learned to stay in shape and survive while on military duty.)  They objective is to respect each other and find a mutually comfortable way to nourish your relationship as well as your individual pursuits."--Souls Under Siege


Resources for Spouse and Dependents of Servicemember
Military OneSource has lots of information on homecoming, deployment, and transitions
FOCUS project
Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program for Reserve and National Guard
OASIS program at Naval Medical Center San Diego
Chaplain
Ombudsman
Family Readiness Groups and Army Family Resource Center
These Boots by Jacey Eckhart, an audio CD available through Military OneSource

Books:
Easy to read and understand:
Down Range:  to Iraq and Back by Bridget Cantrell, PhD and Chuck Dean
Once a Warrior:  Wired for Life by Bridget Cantrell, PhD and Chuck Dean
Souls Under Siege:  the effects of multiple troop deployments and how to weather the storm by Bridget Cantrell, PhD

Resources for Family Members and Extended Family of Servicemember or Veteran
This includes brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, and so on
You do not have access to Military OneSource resources and probably do not have access to resources on base.  I recommend these books to give you an idea of what your servicemember goes through with reintegration:

Down Range: to Iraq and Back by Bridget Cantrell, PhD and Chuck Dean
Once a Warrior: Wired for Life by Bridget Cantrell, PhD and Chuck Dean
Souls Under Siege: the effects of multiple troop deployments and how to weather the storm by Bridget Cantrell, PhD


Resources for the Health Care Provider
Whether or not you prefer scholarly books, the following by Cantrell and Dean are the best and most accessible resources and a great reality check for how things really work with most servicemembers and their families in today's military.
Down Range: to Iraq and Back by Bridget Cantrell, PhD and Chuck Dean
Once a Warrior: Wired for Life by Bridget Cantrell, PhD and Chuck Dean
Souls Under Siege: the effects of multiple troop deployments and how to weather the storm by Bridget Cantrell, PhD

For the more scholarly minded:
Combat Stress Injury:  Theory, Research, and Management edited by Charles R. Figley and William P. Nash
Early Intervention for Trauma and Traumatic Loss edited by Brett T. Litz
Strengthening Family Resilience by Froma Walsh
Moving a Nation to Care:  Post-traumatic stress disorder and America's Returning Troops by Ilona Meagher

If you are interested in courses, I highly recommend the "Combat Operational Stress Control" courses the Navy Chaplain Corps has sponsored in the past few years.

If you having some training in acupuncture as a physician who did a short course or if you are a detox specialist or a fully-trained and national board certified Practitioner of Acupuncture and/or Oriental Medicine, look into the Military Stress Recovery Project through Acupuncturists without Borders.  The MSRP clinics are not full-treatment traditional acupuncture practices.  The MSRP clinics use the simple 5 needle auricular (ear) protocol that is taught to detox specialists.  For a Military Stress Recovery Project near you, check out the website.  If you want to set up your own MSRP clinic for treating veterans, check out the training and information through Acupuncturists without Borders.


--Megan Kingsley Gale, EAMP/L.Ac., Dipl. OM
East Asian Medicine Practitioner/Licensed Acupuncturist
Nationally Board Certified in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM)
Military wife
Health care provider to veterans and servicemembers

Military Chaplains and Combat Stress--5 minute video

Military Chaplains get combat stress, too.  This is a great video of  Navy Chaplain LCDR Dundas deals with his own post traumatic stress disorder symptoms and through his journey is an even greater counselor to his Sailors and Marines.  Click here for the 5 minute YouTube video.

Strengthen your Marriage Resilience

A Team Approach to Military Life Military.com

This military.com article, by Julia Pfaff, is in response to the new statistics about increased divorce rate among servicemembers.  She noticed several common traits among those who have strong, resilient marriages.
Here is a synopsis of her list:

1. An understanding that marriage and military life are voluntary choices.  [Avoid resentment creeping in to your relationship.]
2. A team approach to military life.  [Embrace military life as a family lifestyle.]
3. Mutual respect.  Honor the sacrifices of each partner.
4. Frequent, honest communication.
5. A realistic perspective of military life.  [See also frequent, honest communication and mutual respect.]
6. A desire for both military life and married life.
7. A support group, within and without the military circle.
8. Deep trust in each other. 

__________________________________________________________________________________
For more information on programs that help you and your spouse strengthen your communciation skills together and/or separately as well as strengthen your resilience as a couple, talk with your local chaplain.  He or she can guide you to more resources such as FOCUS and others.

For the full article, click here.

The DSTRESS LINE for Marines--free anonymous counseling by phone or online chat and Related Resources

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The DSTRESS Line provides professional, anonymous counseling for Marines, their corpsmen, and their families.  It is a free call or free online chat. 

"Marines want to talk with someone who understands them as a Marine. The DSTRESS Line provides Marines, attached Sailors, and family members with a place to call and speak with 'one of their own.' It is a place to call and talk about problems before they turn into a crisis.

The DSTRESS Line helps callers increase resilience and develop the necessary skills required to cope with the widely varying challenges of life in the Corps and the inevitable stress of combat operations."

See their website for more details.
1-877-476-7734.

More Resources for Readjustment to Living State-side and More Counseling Services
There is also free online and phone counseling through:
Military OneSource

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TriWest Online Free Counseling--see video
your CHAPLAIN

TRICARE
TRICARE Region North
TRICARE Region South
Defense Centers of Excellence Outreach Center
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and Veterans Suicide Prevention Hotline 1-800-273-8255
Military Stress Recovery Project Clinics--free or low-cost acupuncture for veterans and their families.  Find a clinic near you on the Acupuncturists without Borders (AWB) website (listed by state).
Take the Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory anonymously.  [Inventory created by the American Psychological Association (APA)]
Information via online Short Video/Movie
video:  Dr. Mike Colson of the VA and re-adjustments issues for returning warriors, some resources through TriWest.
video:  GWOT = "Global War on Terrorism Veteran" with Dr. Mike Colson of the VA and some resources through TriWest.  He talks about some readjustment issues that are common to be aware of when you are just returning State-side.
video:  Symptoms of Combat Stress with Dr. Maguire of the VA. 
video:  Common Questions with Dr. Mike Colson.

Megan's Notes on Symptoms of Combat Stress vs. PTSD

Combat Stress or operational theater stress or deployment stress is not PTSD.  Combat Stress is a normal body and mind reaction to shock and stressful situations and human experiences that are common in war zones.  PTSD is a diagnosis given by a psychologist or psychiatrist when symptoms of combat stress have not improved over a long period of time (more than 1 year).  Proper and early treatment of combat stress prevents the development of PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) in most cases.

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Symptoms of combat stress include (not all possible symptoms listed):  insomnia (poor sleep, waking feeling not rested, waking throughout night, waking at the same time every night, etc), unexplained anger and/or frustration, anxiety, mild depression, racing thoughts, reliving dreams or stressful memories (also called flashbacks), headaches, and/or body pain.  Some people have more than one symptom and some have just one symptom.  It is a problem if your symptoms impact your daily life and routine.  Check out the post-traumatic experience growth inventory by the APA.

Copyright Megan Kingsley Gale

Stress-Relief Acupuncture as practiced through De-Stress Vets and other Military Stress Recovery Project Clinics helps relieve these symptoms through the use of tiny needles (as thin or thinner than a strand of hair) in special points in the ear (called auricular acupuncture).  So, acupuncture is a good complement to your conventional treatment and/or counseling (with mental health therapist or chaplain).  When someone is experiencing traumatic stress or combat stress, their body-mind is stuck in state called "sympathetic nervous system overload".  It is the autonomic nervous system's job to fluctuate from "fight or flight" (sympathetic response) to "rest and digest" (parasympathetic mode) in a balanced, healthy way.  Stress-Relief Acupuncture works by reminding the body's autonomic nervous system how to reset from "fight or flight" to "rest and digest".  Our bodies have their own wisdom to heal; modalities/medicines such as acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine help our bodies remember how to be in balance and not in "dis-stress" or "dis-ease" states.

If you are a medic or corpsmen or other deploy-able medical personnel and interested in taking a course from De-Stress Vets, check out the website for information on "Acu-tack for Stress Relief©" and "Acu-tack for Pain Relief©" or send an email with "requesting info on Acutack courses" in the subject line to info@destressvets.com. 

See related posts in this blog such as Managing Traumatic Stress, Resilience in a Time of War,  The Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program, the FOCUS and FOCUS for Couples programs, Female Soldiers and their Wounds of War, and "What is the Training Level of My Acupuncturist?".

©Acutack courses copyright held by Megan Kingsley Gale, 2011.