Behavioral Health to support MiBT

Photo By Tech. Sgt. Connie Jones | Chaplin (Lt. Col.) Terry W. Partin has a conversation with Soldiers June 6, 2016 at Fort Hood, Texas during Multi-echelon Integrated Brigade Training Exercise (MiBT). Partin is a member of a Behavioral Health Team, composed of a nurse practitioner, a behavioral health specialist, a medic, and a chaplain from the Mississippi Army National Guard, whose mission is to take care of the Soldiers during the 155th Armored Brigade Combat Team's MiBT. A MIBT is a multicomponent event that sustains readiness of reserve and active components in accordance with the U.S. Army’s total force policy. The 155th is one of two Army National Guard fully modernized brigade combat teams in the U.S. Army and is the largest unit in the Mississippi Army National Guard with approximately 3,000 Soldiers. It is headquartered in Tupelo, Miss., with battalion headquarters throughout the state.  

FORT HOOD, TEXAS, UNITED STATES

06.07.2016

Story by Sgt. Connie Jones 

102d Public Affairs Detachment

FORT HOOD, Texas—Sometimes life can be an overwhelming burden to ruck. Soldiers struggle to adjust the cargo but eventually, if some of the weight is not lightened, it will begin to wear them down until they feel they can no longer go on.

The Behavioral Health Team assembled by Joint Forces Headquarters-Mississippi and 184th Sustainment Command was designed to lighten the load during the 155th Armored Brigade Combat Team’s Multi-echelon Integrated Brigade Training (MiBT) at Fort Hood, Texas.

The team consists of a nurse practitioner, a medic, a behavioral health specialist, and a chaplain.

“The Behavioral Health Team that we’ve put together is here to support the 155th and their mission and to make sure that their Soldiers are taken care of,” said Lt. Col. Bruce A. Giamalva, the only nurse practitioner in the U.S. Army to deploy as a brigade surgeon during a combat deployment. “Soldiers feel they have a safe space to come in and talk about their concerns.”

With approximately 3,000 Mississippi Guardsmen participating in the exercise hundreds of miles away from home, there would be great potential for high levels of stress.

“We knew with the size of this exercise and number of troops that there would be a possibility of troops coming in with issues. They want to be here, they want to do their best but the truth is, life goes on around them,” said Lt. Col. Terry W. Partin, command chaplain of the 184th.

Having a chaplain on the team is a result of the distinctive partnership between the behavioral health and suicide intervention specialists in the Mississippi Guard and the chaplains, which helps to ensure care in all areas, said Staff Sgt. Jean Whaley, the suicide prevention program manager for the Mississippi Army National Guard.

“What’s unique about the program is that we have formed such a team working with the chaplains,” said Whaley. “It helps because there are only a few [behavioral health specialists]. A lot of the chaplains have been through our Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training and some of them are our trainers so that knowledge and background assists behavior health.”

The program has been very successful in preventing suicides in the Mississippi Guard by assisting approximately 260 Soldiers with suicidal thoughts or other behavioral health concerns this year before MiBT, she said.

Their mission here is very similar to the mission they have at home, said Whaley.

“Our mission here is to offer services for counseling. We can do a mental health assessment and determine whether or not the person needs to go for any in-patient treatment if they are presenting suicidal ideations.”

The behavioral health specialists also help support the soldiers who are feeling a little tense, said Whaley.

“We offer suggestions for how to deal with stress for anxiety attacks, breathing techniques, and ways to relieve stress while they are in this [annual training] environment,” she said.

The decision to create the team and offer services came from the state level of command out of concern for the Soldiers, said Partin.

“The Mississippi National Guard is concerned about the Soldiers and their families. This is just a way to continue to ensure that our Soldiers are cared for. We want them to complete this mission with honor and strength,” he said.

Even with all of the services provided, simply having a conversation with someone can be enough to ease the cargo.

“Most people feel very inadequate at helping someone that is suicidal but the truth is: everybody can help somebody,” said Giamalva. “If you are willing to stop and listen, not freak out, help them see a reason to live. As long as you’re doing that, they’re talking to you; they’re alive.”

For information on the program in Mississippi or the team at MiBT, contact Staff Sgt. Whaley at [phone] or Chaplain Partin at [phone].

• Date Taken: 06.07.2016
• Date Posted: 06.07.2016 15:04
• Story ID: 200238
• Location: FORT HOOD, TEXAS, US