Photo By Sgt. Scyrrus Corregidor | Daniel Schreiter, community manager for veteran services on Fort Carson, shares his...... read more read more
Subscribe
The Army Substance Abuse Program's mission is to help strengthen the overall fitness and effectiveness of the Army's workforce, conserve manpower, and enhance the combat readiness of Soldiers within a unit.
These programs also provide proactive and responsive services to the needs of the Army's workforce and emphasize alcohol and other drug abuse deterrence, prevention, education, and rehabilitation.
"When you look at all the high-risk behaviors that are out there, alcohol is the common denominator," said Anthony McCollin, prevention chief of ASAP at Fort Carson, Colorado. "Whether it's financial issues, domestic violence or sexual assault, all these things impact a Soldier's readiness to be able to keep the focus on the wartime mission."
ASAP provides effective alcohol and other drug abuse prevention and education at all levels of command and encourages commanders to deliver alcohol and drug-free leisure activities.
"It's a multi-effort approach," McCollin said. "Some commanders look at warfighting capabilities and readiness and focus on that. Other commanders look at the prevention efforts and think, 'If I can't get my Soldiers to the fight because of the choices they're making that affects readiness.'"
Daniel Schreiter, community manager for veteran services at Fort Carson, advises leaders to provide their Soldiers with the help they need to be combat-ready.
"It's intimidating to face some of our demons that we've been hiding for years, but once you face one or two, you're empowered," said Schreiter. "Once you face alcohol, you start to beat it, and you start to get a few weeks and months of sobriety. You now have a powerful Soldier who is claiming he's clear minded. The domestic abuse goes down and all the bad decisions he's making start to subside. All of those are causes of substance abuse."
ASAP provides a healthy environment, free of substance abuse and substance abuse-related problems for Soldiers, Civilians, Retirees, and Family members.
A U.S. Army officer, who requested anonymity due to only speaking in closed-door settings because his story could compromise the integrity and anonymity of the program, said ASAP changed his life.
"I went through an incident, almost nine years ago, and it changed my life," the officer said. "When I went through this program, it gave me the ability to take ownership and responsibility for my problem. The level of care I received here was unlike anywhere else I've gone to, and it's because of ASAP that I was able to turn my life around."
ASAP is located at 1638 Elwell Street, Bldg. 6236, Room 214, Fort Carson, Colorado, 80913, and accepts walk-in appointments.
-30-
| Date Taken: | 02.15.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 03.01.2022 07:24 |
| Story ID: | 415128 |
| Location: | FORT CARSON, COLORADO, US |
| Web Views: | 138 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Army Substance Abuse Program strengthens the Army’s workforce, by SGT Scyrrus Corregidor, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
