Photo By Brian Godette | Bibles and other reading material line a desk as the at the Rural Clergy Training...... read more read more
Subscribe
POPE ARMY AIRFIELD, N.C. – The call was sounded. If you create it, they will come. The chaplains were assembled.
Co-sponsored by the National VA Chaplain Center in Hampton, Virginia, and the U.S. Army Reserve, chaplains from across the country met for the Rural Clergy Training Program, a train-the-trainer seminar held March 2-3, 2016.
“We wanted to open this up to all ranks, all chaplains,” said Maj. Randal Johnson, RCTP facilitator and USARC chaplain.
The ultimate goal sought to increase the tools available for military chaplains to help reach clergy and congregations in remote geographical areas, helping them learn more about the military culture, the wounds of war, the challenges veterans face following deployment, and provide pastoral care to veterans and their families, building community partnerships to support them.
“The statistic that is most striking to me is out of the 2.2 million service members who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, research shows, that 7-24 percent of those people will suffer symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury,” said Chaplain Keith Ethridge, associate director at the National VA Chaplain Center. “Those are in many ways invisible wounds of war.”
“To understand that a Soldier might literally be walking the streets of Afghanistan, trying to avoid explosive devices, trying to take care of themselves, and then the next week or so come back home and be back in their civilian camouflage, disappear in the community, and you meet them on the street and don’t even know what this Soldier has experienced,” Ethridge said. “That is the reality of what it’s like in America, and what its like for our folks who carry the wounds of war and live it every day.”
The Rural Clergy Training Program originally began in 2010 as a partnership between the National VA Chaplain Center and the VA office of Rural Health, with over 200 civilian clergy training at workshops held at rural VA medical centers. The shift now, expanded that effort to include current military personnel.
“The RCTP is a partnership with the VA and with the U.S. Army Reserve Chaplains and we are hoping and praying this will go beyond the Army Reserve, that the National Guard, active duty, all of us partner with the VA so we can partner with the local clergy and get the community involved,” said Col. Alan Pomaville, command chaplain, U.S. Army Reserve Command.
“By doing that, our ultimate goal is providing the support, the resources, the spiritual encouragement and training that they need to help stay strong,” Pomaville said.
Research indicates that one out of four veterans turn to a chaplain or clergy person first when confronting problems, according to Ethridge.
“For us, as chaplains, we know that moral injury, where conflict between what a person feels is right, and either what they are required to do, experienced, or witnessed, is an even greater contributor to emotional or moral distress, and we need to prepare for that,” said Ethridge.
“Initial data indicated that this training raised awareness, resulting in the clergy trained increasing the referrals of veterans in their community to the VA administration healthcare system by 64 percent and to a community behavioral health provider by 41 percent,” said Johnson.
“It’s already provided the proof of principles from its origination between 2010 and 2013,“ Johnson said. “We want to enhance that and better equip the mission in such a way that it reaches more veterans.”
A highly talked about issue in the military has been veteran suicide. Chaplains and coordinators see the RCTP as another avenue to help reduce the risk of veteran suicides.
“We want to get ahead of this thing called suicide,” Johnson said. “This is also a part of suicide awareness, intervention, and prevention, primarily prevention, in such a way that we educate our civilian clergy so that they are capable of doing a better job providing the needs of our veterans.”
“The idea is to tell the story, as much as we can, to as many people as we can, to prevent suicide in the veteran ranks,” Johnson said.
The train-the-trainer RCTP repeated that message and others, seeing wide participation by the chaplains and chaplain assistants in attendance, who represented all three components of the U.S. Army.
“I think it was a complete success,” Johnson said.
“We are all one,” said Master Sgt. Sheila Thomas, master chaplain assistant. “This is a Total Force, not just reserve, active or guard.”
The value of the RCTP seminar was just what many in the field needed.
“Once the training commenced, a lot of chaplains in attendance walked away saying ‘this is what we need to be able to reach our community, to help our veterans, our current Soldiers, and Family members walk through difficult situations,” said Sgt. 1st Class Mary Munyua, strong bonds non commissioned officer.
The success of the event, touted by the participants, has a future opportunity for more to get involved according to Johnson.
“We have another conference planned in August,” said Johnson. “Training begins on the 10th and ends on the 11th, and we plan to have it here at Fort Bragg.”
The mission was created and from the chaplain’s standpoint, the cause couldn't be greater.
“Chaplain Pomaville says, 'What better mission is there than to be reaching out trying to save the lives of our veterans, or anyone connected to what we do, in suicide prevention?’” Johnson quoted. “We need to get ahead of this thing called suicide and I believe with God’s help, we can make it happen.”
| Date Taken: | 03.02.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 03.14.2016 15:29 |
| Story ID: | 192298 |
| Location: | POPE ARMY AIR FIELD, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 279 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Rural Clergy Training Program: Spreading the word, by Brian Godette, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
