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Monthly Newsletter
Addressing Trauma-Active Duty Service Members, Veterans and their Families
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Mental Health First Aid
Date: Thursday, August 1, 2019
Time: 10:00 - 11:00 pm
Location: Albuquerque, NM
Duration: 8 hours
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Advanced Ethics
Date: Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Time: 8:30 - 4:30 pm
Location: Kansas City, MO
Duration: 7 hours
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Webinar: Opioid Overdose Prevention and Infectious Disease Control: Opportunities for Collaboration
Date: Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Time: 10:00 - 11:00 pm
Duration: 60 minutes
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Ethics TOT
Date: Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Time: 8:30 - 4:30 pm
Location: Kansas City, MO
Duration: 7 hours
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The South Southwest PTTC provides high-impact training and technical assistance (T/TA) services, including in-person and virtual trainings; toolkits and guidance documents; networking and learning communities; coordination of regional advisory groups; and intensive coaching to build the professional and community capacities required to deliver effective and evidence-based prevention programs, practices and strategies.
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Spotlight: Dave Closson
Serving Military Veterans in Substance Misuse Prevention
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Dave is a national expert on substance misuse prevention and law enforcement and
was deployed with the U.S. Army as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
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As a 21-year-old junior in college, I was deployed to Iraq. That call came in the middle of the first semester. I went from being a college student sitting in classrooms to patrolling the streets of Iraq. My very first day in country we took mortar fire and the first week on patrol my truck was hit by an Improvised Explosive Devise (I.E.D). Big change from being in the classroom and worrying about getting homework done!
After a year-long deployment, I returned home mid-summer and jumped right back into college, picking up where I left off. Since it was such a long deployment, all my friends had just graduated. Now I was older than the other students, didn’t have any friends, my life experiences were like no other, and I was still figuring out how to make the adjustment back to civilian life.
I felt alone and I had heard ‘re-adjusting’ to civilian life can be difficult. But today, our veterans are not alone--we are here to help support them. The US Census Bureau estimates that there are 18.8 million military veterans living in the country. According to the Department of Defense, approximately 250,000 members of the military are expected to transition to our communities annually for at least the next 4-5 years.
This influx of veterans adds another scope to your prevention efforts. I’d like to share some thoughts from my experience as a veteran and now working in substance misuse prevention to help you serve the veterans in your community.
Community
: As I noted above, I felt alone and as if I didn’t really fit in with the other students on campus. I felt out of place, uncomfortable, and as if nobody could relate to my experiences. This led me to battle the adjustment and challenges on campus alone.
Tip
: Reach out to the veteran center, veteran’s group, or veteran employees and invite them to join the conversation and prevention efforts. The team approach is a core value in the military just as in prevention work. Collaborate and create opportunities for veterans to build a community.
Targeted Efforts
: Building off the sense of community and belonging on campus, I often felt many of the campus activities and prevention efforts were for the “normal college student,” not for me. This mindset led me to quickly dismiss prevention messaging, avoid programs and resources. This also furthered the sense of not belonging.
Tip
: Consider implementing some veteran-focused prevention strategies. Following the collaboration I previously mentioned, include feedback and input from veterans throughout the process of identifying, developing, and implementing these strategies
Risk and Protective Factors
: This should be the focus for all your prevention efforts – identifying, prioritizing, and addressing risk factors, protective factors, and intervening variables. This is always a solid approach.
Tip
: I encourage you to look at the data, conduct focus groups, and ensure you don’t get tunnel vision when considering these. Although veterans are in fact members of your community, they might be facing a different variety of risk and protective factors. There could be many things that influence substance misuse, ranging from accessing veteran benefits, disabilities (visible and hidden), post-traumatic stress, moral injury, low positive emotion, mental health, and stressful relationships.
Cultural Competence
: This is at the heart of the
Strategic Prevention Framework
and is at the heart of serving our veterans. Be sure to value and appreciate your veterans.
Tip
: Take time to understand military culture, battlefield skills, and deployment-related stressors. Listen to veteran’s stories and understand their unique stressors.
Dave is a national expert on substance misuse prevention and law enforcement. He is the author of the Amazon Best Seller, “
Motivational Interviewing for Campus Police
and the recently released
Student Veteran’s Planner
. He is the Director of the newly formed Mid-America Prevention Technology Transfer Center and the owner of DJC Solutions LLC, a national training and consulting company. He previously worked as a T/TA Specialist for SAMHSA’s Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies and was formerly the Assistant Director of the Illinois Higher Education Center. Dave brings a unique experience to substance misuse prevention, having served as a Police Officer at Eastern Illinois University (EIU). Dave was deployed as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. While spending a year in Iraq with his infantry battalion and recon team, he earned the Combat Infantryman’s Badge and was awarded two Army Commendation Medals (one for valor and one for meritorious service)
Learn more about Dave and his work on his
website
.
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Additional Resources--Supporting Military Service Members, Veterans and their Families
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Veterans Crisis Line: Suicide Prevention Hotline, Text & ...
Free, confidential support for Veterans in crisis and their families and friends. Call the Veterans Crisis Line at 1-800-273-8255 and Press 1, text to 838255, or chat online 24/7/365.
Read more
www.veteranscrisisline.net
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Multijurisdictional Counterdrug Task Force Training
Free online training for military and law enforcement partners. Unique, counterdrug and counter transnational organized crime training.
Read more
mctft.org
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Hidden Heroes - Join and Support Military Caregivers
Military caregivers don't often ask for help, but they deserve our support. Join the Elizabeth Dole Foundation's Hidden Heroes campaign today.
Read more
hiddenheroes.org
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More Helpful Links
Mental Health First Aid Training
Mental Health First Aid is an 8-hour course that teaches you how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders. This 8-hour training gives you the skills you need to reach out and provide initial support to someone who may be developing a mental health or substance use problem and help connect them to appropriate care.
HealtheKnowledge Course: Military Members 101
In this two-hour video course, expert speakers discuss working with members of the military and their families. By the end of this training, participants will gain an understanding of how to work with military members, veterans, and families of military members. Topics covered include: Military Culture 101; Ethics and the Military; and, Military Members and their Families.
Military Pathways
Free, anonymous mental health and alcohol self-assessments and referrals online, over the phone, and at special events held at installations worldwide for family members and service personnel in all branches including the National Guard and Reserve.
Hidden Heroes: America's Military Caregivers
This report summarizes the results of a study designed to describe the magnitude of military care-giving in the United States today, as well as to identify gaps in the array of programs, policies, and initiatives designed to support military caregivers. Improving military caregivers' well-being and ensuring their continued ability to provide care will require multifaceted approaches to reducing the current burdens care-giving may impose and bolstering their ability to serve as caregivers more effectively. Given the systematic differences among military caregiver groups, it is also important that tailored approaches meet the unique needs and characteristics of post-9/11 caregivers.
The top ten things to keep in mind when working with military families. This tip sheet includes information on family separation, stigma about mental health care, access to programs, involving peers and civilian providers and more.
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Training Highlight
Introduction to Substance Abuse Prevention: Understanding the Basics
Training is Now Available
The free online Pre-Substance Abuse Prevention Skills Training (SAPST), sponsored by the Prevention Technology Transfer Center (PTTC) Network is now available! If you are planning to take the face to face SAPST within the next six months or if you are a new preventionist, we recommend that you take this course within the next few months.
This foundational course offers practitioners new to the field of prevention, or working in related fields, an introduction to the history of prevention, key concepts and definitions, specific drug effects, and an exciting glimpse into the effects of substance use and addiction on the brain. Participants will learn about:
- Basic terminology and facts
- History of substance use and prevention in the U.S.
- Addiction and the brain
- Effects and health risks of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs
Accessing the course:
- Register for a HealthEKnowledge account (it’s free) if you don’t already have an account, go to https://healtheknowledge.org/mod/page/view.php?id=13430
- Access the course directly here: http://healtheknowledge.org/course/index.php?categoryid=89
- Click on the “Register Now and Begin Course” button. When prompted, enter the following course key for the SSW PTTC Region: pttc-6
Participants completing the online component of the SAPST will receive a certificate for five hours of training pending receipt of a “pass” score on the final assessment (80% correct is a passing grade).
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Other Highlights
Integrating Primary and Behavioral Health Care through the Lens of Prevention (IPBHC)
2019 Call for Proposals
Now Open – Deadline Extended!
The Southwest Prevention Center (SWPC) is now accepting conference proposals for presenters on a wide spectrum of prevention topics and issues that support the development of an integrated prevention infrastructure and provides examples of communities where this is happening.
Extended deadline! Submit your proposal by
July 22, 2019
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Tribal Communities: Drug Endangered Children: Building a Successful Collaborative Response Seminar
Nomination forms are due by July 19, 2019
The U.S. Department of Justice’s National Indian Country Training Initiative, in partnership with the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children, is pleased to announce the Drug Endangered Children: Building a Successful Collaborative Response Seminar.
The seminar will be held September 4-6, 2019, at the National Advocacy Center in Columbia, South Carolina. Travel and lodging accommodations will be provided by the Office of Legal Education. Priority will be given to those working in tribal communities.
The National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children defines drug endangered children (DEC) as children who are at risk of suffering physical or emotional harm as a result of illegal drug use (i.e., possession, manufacturing, cultivation, or distribution). There also may be children whose caretaker’s substance misuse interferes with the caretaker’s ability to parent and provide a safe and nurturing environment. The primary challenge with illegal substance abuse and DEC is in coordinating the social and political systems charged with preventing, intervening, and treating these cases.
This seminar is designed for individuals working cases in Indian country with child victims and/or child witnesses where drug and alcohol issues are present. Assistant United States attorneys, victim-witness specialists, law enforcement coordinators, federal and other law enforcement officers, tribal prosecutors, victim advocates, and social service personnel are encouraged to attend this seminar.
The training will cover the following material: (1) strategies for developing a successful DEC program; (2) emerging drug trends; (3) a description of how the criminal investigation is a critical point for identifying and responding to the needs of drug endangered children; (4) a description of how the criminal justice system can align with the child welfare system; (5) an explanation of how a good handoff between agencies, followed by lasting efforts by all professionals, is critical to track and reduce potential harm to children; and, (6) federal laws requiring mandatory reporting of child abuse in Indian country
.
Nomination forms are due by July 19, 2019.
If you are providing more than one nomination form for your office, please rank each nomination in the order of preference.
The NICTI will review all nominations and will send an e-mail advising nominees of their selection on or about
July 29, 2019
. Selected nominees will also receive information on how to book travel and lodging.
In order to ensure that our records are correct, please
type
in the required information when completing the nomination forms. Illegible and/or incomplete forms will not be considered.
Due to the increasing number of last-minute cancellations, we must ask that only nominations for those who are certain to attend be submitted.
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Each month a question to the field will be posted to generate feedback to be shared in the following month's newsletter. The purpose of this section is to exchange ideas and share examples of prevention work in your tribe, state, or community. Please send responses to the question to
pttc@ou.edu
. These responses will be shared in next month's newsletter.
How does your tribe, community or state provide support to military service members, veterans, and their families?
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Epi Corner
Beverly Triana-Tremain, PhD
Epidemiologist
South Southwest Prevention Technology Transfer Center
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Apps for Veterans and Those Working With Veterans Addressing Trauma
We had 18.5 million military veterans in the United States in 2016. From 2008 to 2016, there were more than 6,000 veteran suicides each year. This rate was 1.6 times greater for veterans than for non-veteran adults, after adjusting for age and gender. Despite the many challenges veterans face reintegrating into society after returning, veterans make good employees. They problem solve quickly, follow rules and schedules, work well in a team, and have self-confidence and realistic estimations of their skills. They are organized and disciplined, possess cross-functional skills, and have a sense of duty (United States Department of Veterans Affairs, 2015).
[1]
We all use Apps! Listed below are some apps available for veterans that may make life easier.
- Annie App – The Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Annie App is a Short Message Service (SMS) text messaging capability that promotes self-care for Veterans enrolled in VA health care. When your provider or a member of your VA health care team signs you up for Annie for a health issue, you will receive automated messages that prompt you to track your own health. You are asked to reply to messages so that Annie can let you know how you are doing. Annie also can send you messages from your local VA medical facility. https://mobile.va.gov/app/annie-app-veterans
- Rallypoint – the Facebook for veterans. RallyPoint connects members and provides tools to succeed along their entire lifetime journey - from recruit through retirement and beyond. Members build peer to peer relationships across branches, generations, and conflicts forged by the common bond of service. https://www.rallypoint.com/
- VetChange – around 13% of veterans will end up with a substance use disorder. This app helps keep a daily log of behaviors and set goals. VetChange is an app for Veterans who are concerned about their drinking and want to do something about it. It is free and confidential and helps Veterans set goals, acquire skills to reduce or cease their drinking, and track progress over time. https://vetchange.org/home/index2
- StayQuit – Stay Quit Coach is designed to help with quitting smoking. It is intended to serve as a source of readily available support and information for adults who are already in treatment to quit smoking, to help them stay quit even after treatment ends. The app guides you in creating a tailored plan that takes into account your personal reasons for quitting. It provides information about smoking and quitting, interactive tools to help users cope with urges to smoke, and motivational messages and support contacts to help you stay smoke-free. https://mobile.va.gov/app/stay-quit-coach
- PTSD Coach – around 20% of veterans have PTSD. This app offers a self-assessment, learning modules, managing symptoms, and finding support. PTSD Coach was designed for Veterans and military Service members who have, or may have, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This app provides users with education about PTSD, information about professional care, a self-assessment for PTSD, opportunities to find support, and tools that can help users manage the stresses of daily life with PTSD. https://mobile.va.gov/app/ptsd-coach
- Mindfulness Coach 2 – Mindfulness means noticing and paying attention to what is going on in the present moment, without passing judgment on it. Mindfulness has been shown to be effective for reducing stress, improving emotional balance, increasing self-awareness, helping with anxiety and depression, and coping more effectively with chronic pain. Mindfulness Coach 2 was developed to help Veterans, service members, and others learn how to practice mindfulness. The app provides a gradual, self-guided training program designed to help you understand and adopt a simple mindfulness practice. Mindfulness Coach also offers a library of information about mindfulness, 12 audio-guided mindfulness exercises, a growing catalog of additional exercises available for free download, goal-setting and tracking, a mindfulness mastery assessment to help you track your progress over time, customizable reminders, and access to other support and crisis resources. Mindfulness Coach was created by VA’s National Center for PTSD. https://mobile.va.gov/app/mindfulness-coach
- My3 – With MY3, you define your network and your plan to stay safe. With MY3 you can be prepared to help yourself and reach out to others when you are having thoughts of suicide. Remember: there is hope and a life to look forward to, even in your darkest moments. MY3 can help you get through your most difficult times. Who are your 3? Is it your sister? Your therapist? Maybe even a neighbor down the street? Download MY3 to make sure that your 3 are there to help you when you need them most. https://my3app.org/
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