Photo By Douglas Stutz | During the second leg of Pacific Partnership 2017, Navy Social Worker Lt. Stacey...... read more read more
During Pacific Partnership 2017 to host-country Malaysia in April, training was conducted in preparing and handling any emotional shock and psychological strain for not only victims of a disaster, but also first responders.
Navy Social Worker Lt. Stacey Uzueta, of Naval Hospital Bremerton’s Case Management Department, was selected for the Malaysia engagement due to her expertise in stress and trauma. She spent one week in the capital of Kuala Lumpur and two weeks in the coastal city of Kuching on the island of Borneo.
In her official role, Uzueta primarily developed and delivered presentations that further enhanced the host nation’s understanding on providing stress mitigation and self-care to first responders and caregivers. She also engaged in community health outreach, participated in subject matter expert exchanges and field training exercises.
“In Kuala Lumpur, I presented on the topic of mitigation of first responder stress and participated in subject matter exchanges with my counterparts in the mental health professions. In Kuching, I engaged in several community health outreach events. I presented and educated Malaysians in remote villages on topics of self-care, coping mechanisms and stress reduction. I also participated in a field training exercise which simulated a natural disaster of flooding, which is the most common threat in Malaysia, where I provided psychological first aid and assisted victims in accessing resources,” said Uzueta, a Staten Island, N.Y. native.
Malaysia's has participated in Pacific Partnership for a dozen years, and was a host nation last year. Malaysians also have first-hand – and first responder – experience in dealing with the massive natural disaster that prompted the Pacific Partnership annual mission of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
It was on Dec. 26, 2004, that a sizable 9.3 earthquake caused the devastating tsunami that took place off the northwestern coast of nearby Sumatra, Indonesia.
For the most part, Malaysia was spared due to being directly east of Sumatra, which bore the brunt of the cataclysmic event. The northwestern province of Banda Aceh on Sumatra was the epicenter with over 100,000 people killed, thousands more missing and upwards of 700,000 displaced along islands of the Indonesian archipelago bordering the Indian Ocean.
Unfortunately there were fatalities on Penang Island, Malaysia – just 345 miles from Banda Aceh - where tsunami waves of 25 to 35 feet high slammed ashore, resulting in 68 fatalities, six missing and 8,000 residents displaced.
“As a mental health professional, we exchanged what services (to provide) from a mental health perspective, as well as the trauma recovery process. We also discussed methods of treatment following a traumatic event,” explained Uzueta.
The flow of knowledge and insight was a constant theme during her time in the host-nation.
“I understood more clearly than ever the basic human instinct for survival and how resilient most humans are in the face of trauma. I also took away how very important it is for people to have support from others and how that aids in their recovery from traumatic events,” stated Uzueta.
For Uzueta, her work with Malaysian health care experts has been the highlight of her two years in the Navy. The opportunity allowed her to deploy to the host-nation and showcase her capabilities as a Navy Medical Service Corps officer specifically trained as one of approximately 80 social workers in the Navy.
“I feel extremely privileged to be selected to represent the Navy for Pacific Partnership ‘17 Malaysia. It was so cool to meet the people of Malaysia, learn about their culture, their challenges, the differences and similarities among us, and just to be a part of the helping process,” shared Uzueta, adding that her entire time there was underscored by professional interaction and personal appreciation.
There are specific memories Uzueta will continue to share now returned, including interacting with the Malaysian military, Sailors of various ranks and backgrounds, other military forces that took part, and especially the villagers.
“It was an honor to be a part of this. It was particularly special because it was my very first deployment and mission away from the command! It really was a great experience for me,” explained Uzueta. “I felt like a celebrity! The Malaysians seemed very impressed with our military and expressed how grateful they were that we were there. Also, they requested a lot of pictures with us.”
Uzueta attests that the most gratifying aspect of being involved in the annual mission was being able to see the appreciation from those in need of medical care toward the providers and professionals helping them.
“There were those in remote villages who did not have ready access. They received basic healthcare that was not otherwise available to them,” said Uzueta.
Malaysia was the second mission stop of Pacific Partnership 2017, and activities there included humanitarian aid and disaster response preparedness exercises, such as mock rescue medical triage, along with subject matter expert medical exchanges such as what Uzueta provided, nutrition and cardiopulmonary resuscitation classes, civil engineering projects and community engagement events.
Pacific Partnership is the largest annual multilateral humanitarian assistance and disaster relief preparedness mission conducted in the Indo-Asia-Pacific and aims to enhance regional coordination in areas such as medical readiness and preparedness for manmade and natural disasters.
| Date Taken: | 05.19.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 05.22.2017 18:01 |
| Story ID: | 234775 |
| Location: | KUCHING, SARAWAK, MY |
| Web Views: | 282 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Navy Social Worker Shares Stress, Trauma Expertise in Malaysia during Pacific Partnership 2017, by Douglas Stutz, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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