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JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. - The rifle toss by the precision drill team is executed flawlessly as wide-eyed spectators ooh and ahh. Despite a chill in the morning air, the rendition of taps resonates poignantly across cemetery grounds, comforting mourners at the graveside ceremony.
There may be little room for error in military or civilian high-pressure jobs in the National Capital Region, but that doesn’t mean perfection is achievable in all aspects of life. Striving for excellence in one area can sometimes create fissures in another. The demands of work may have an impact on sleep habits, mental health, family dynamics or cause one to self-medicate to relieve stress.
When things get out of balance for military and civilian personnel on Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, they can benefit by signing up for classes sponsored by Army Community Service’s Family Advocacy Program, seeking help through the Employee Assistance Program or through Marine Corps Community Services Behavioral Health section. These programs help workers develop strategies and coping mechanisms to help them understand stress and lead more productive lives. The ACS and MCCS programs work with military service members and their Families, while the EAP works with civilian employees.
Carol Frazelle, the JBM-HH Employee Assistant Program manager, and Karen Holmes, the Family Advocacy Program community educator, recently sat down with the Pentagram to discuss the reasons employees might seek their services. Molly Ryan, the education and prevention specialist in the Behavioral Health Branch of Marine and Family Programs in Henderson Hall’s Marine Corps Community Services, later added her thoughts.
“Stress can make you physically ill,” said Frazelle, explaining how employees working on the installation can be under a lot of scrutiny working in the shadow of the nation’s capital. “It’s high-profile life in the fishbowl,” she said.
“The operational tempo is so fast here,” added Holmes. “Worry and fear can become a vicious cycle.” “Anger and stress are instinctually related,” said Ryan, who leads stress and anger management classes on the Henderson Hall side of JBM-HH.
Sequestration, a hiring freeze and the prospect of furloughs are some recent stressors, Frazelle said. “People don’t want to come to work because they’re afraid of what [the unexpected things] they’re going to encounter day-to-day.”
A lot of it is uncertainty and lack of control, said Holmes. “The sequestration is seen as bad because [employees] don’t have a say in it.”
“They don’t know what to expect,” said Frazelle, who indicated employees need to take into account what they can and can’t control with impending furloughs. “They’re kind of sitting there on the sidelines … and not really thinking about what the financial consequences are going to be because [furloughs] haven’t happened yet.”
Weighing the negatives and positives in a situation is important, she said, such as understanding, “My paycheck is decreasing, but at least I have a paycheck.”
One of the things that happens sometimes, Frazelle said, is people ask her to tell them what they need to do when they’re living paycheck-to-paycheck or anticipating a loss in income. “I can offer suggestions,” she said. “The bottom line is people have to make their own decisions about what they can do without. I can do without designer clothes or designer shoes, I’m not sure I can do without my candy.”
“The physical symptoms of stress are very, very real and powerful and debilitating. It affects every single system in your body,” said Holmes. “There is not a single organ or system in your body that is not affected by stress.”
Not all stress is bad, Frazelle explained. It can be a motivator when you’re trying to get a job. It may be giddily present when you’re expecting a new child or contemplating the unknowns in a cross-country move. It’s all in how you deal with it, she said.
The key is resiliency, said Holmes, who loops a rubber band between the fingers on her hands — stretching and releasing — as a visual aid in the stress and anger management classes she leads.
“A rubber band, when it’s lying there, you know what it is. It’s a rubber band but it’s not doing its job,” she said. “A rubber band does its job when you stretch it. But then you need to let it go and let it rest until it’s ready again.”
Stress and anger management classes can help individuals recognize emotional triggers to stress so things don’t spiral out of control. Military personnel are sometimes mandated to attend such classes, but individuals can also sign up on their own. Supervisors may refer a civilian employee to EAP because something is affecting their job performance, but employees can also come in on their own.
“Stress is a universal issue,” said Ryan. “We try to emphasize that reaching out is not a sign of weakness.” She said the classes MCCS provides are “a preventive tool.” Even simple techniques like meditation and deep breathing can make a difference in relieving stress, she added.
Holmes said she gets satisfaction in her job by seeing the people who come to her classes leaving a little less defeated at the end.
“It gives them life skills to help them live better,” she said. “Most of the people who are mandated to come in say, ‘I don’t have a problem.’ And I say, ‘OK, why don’t you just sit through the class and we’ll see where we’re at.’ By the time we get to the end, they go, ‘Oh!’
“What the Army has tried to do for years is to instill more resiliency in the people that work for them.” The problem, she said, “is no one sees value in it until they’re already broken.”
Holmes said soldiers and civilians receive training all the time in developing work skills. “How many classes have you taken to be successful at being a husband, a wife, a father, a mother?” she asked. “So why do you think you’re frustrated? Look at what you’re trained for. Which one are you going to do longer [in life]. Hopefully it’s the husband/wife, mother/father. If you want to do that longer you need to start investing in that now.”
“We focus so much on educating ourselves on our jobs, but not nearly as much on ourselves,” echoed Ryan.
“You’re not a failure if you have to come to a class to learn resiliency,” Holmes emphasized.
Frazelle stressed that her one-on-one counseling with employees is confidential. “The door is shut. Any paperwork I do on them is locked up,” she said.
Frazelle said she can counsel people for up to five sessions, after which she can refer them to another therapist or someone else in their community. “EAP isn’t meant to be a long-term process,” she said.
Holmes seconded Frazelle’s emphasis on privacy, explaining how no records are kept of what is said in stress and anger management classes, although participants are required to sign in when they attend (largely for statistical tracking purposes). For those afraid of the stigma in seeking help, she added, personnel can also utilize family and employee assistance programs at other installations.
“If we don’t have something specific to help you, we probably know where we can send you,” she said. “We want to get them plugged into the individual resources they need.
“When you decide that you want to make a change in your life, make sure you’re going to the right resource to get help,” Holmes said. “Make sure that when you’re putting that fire out, you’re putting water on it, not gas. There’s a difference between who your friends are and who your accomplices are.
“What Carol and I offer is considered nonclinical prevention and support,” said Holmes. “Behavioral health and TRICARE referrals take care of the clinical side.”
In addition to services on base, Frazelle and Holmes said resources available through Military OneSource, Children and Behavioral Military Family Life Counselors and the JBM-HH Life YOUniversity online newsletter can help personnel cope with stress.
“If nothing changes, nothing changes,” Holmes said, explaining that not moving forward results in stasis. “You’ve got to stop and change what you’re doing. When you’re caught up in that swirling vortex, we’re a great emergency exit. We will help you break that cycle and get you hooked up with the right people. The goal is to help people get skills to have healthy relationships.”
“Please come and talk to me. I’m here, I’m approachable,” Holmes said, as Frazelle nodded her head in agreement.
Holmes can be reached at 703-696-1201 or Karen.b.holmes.ctr@mail.mil. Frazelle can be contacted at 703-696-3787 or Carol.e.Frazelle.civ@mail.mil. Ryan can be reached at 703-693-0086 or molly.ryan.ctr@usmc.mil.
| Date Taken: | 05.24.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 05.24.2013 10:31 |
| Story ID: | 107541 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 87 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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