Photo By Spc. Turner Horton | Dr. Jennifer Settlemyer, the integrated primary prevention officer for the South...... read more read more
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By: James St.Clair
The South Carolina National Guard has hired a new team of professionals whose mission is to prevent harmful behaviors that degrade unit cohesion and mission readiness. Known as the Integrated Primary Prevention Workforce (IPPW), this cadre of prevention experts is charged with combatting multiple harmful behaviors including suicide, harassment, retaliation, sexual assault, domestic abuse, and child abuse. “Studies have shown that many of these behaviors share several risk and protective factors. Thus, intervening to reduce one risk factor or boost one protective factor can help reduce multiple forms of harm and abuse,” said Dr. Jennifer Settlemyer, the integrated primary prevention officer for the South Carolina National Guard.
The IPPW and the focus on integrated primary prevention stems from a Department of Defense policy in December 2022 which implemented key recommendations from the Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military. This new policy places a premium on primary prevention and therefore mandates a full-time IPPW at every base, post and within every state’s National Guard. In accordance with the DoD’s policy, the National Guard has developed an integrated prevention strategy to provide a coherent, integrated approach to protect the Soldiers, Airmen, and Civilians of the National Guard and enables the National Guard to execute a comprehensive, integrated prevention system.
Violence is a public health issue not only for the military but society as well, according to Settlemyer. Violence includes self-directed harm and prohibited abusive or harmful acts. And while the military continues to improve and refine its response mechanisms to addressing violence after the fact, there is also a need for trying to prevent violence from happening in the first place. That’s where integrated primary prevention comes in. “Violence is preventable and the more violence we can prevent, the better the health outcomes, well-being and military readiness of our Soldiers, Airmen and Families will be here in South Carolina,” Settlemyer said.
The IPPW is currently nested within the existing Service Member Family Care Directorate. The IPPW is additive and does not replace existing personnel who continue to lead secondary and tertiary prevention efforts as mandated by law and National Guard regulations, Settlemyer explained. Her team is comprised of an integrated primary prevention analyst and four harmful behavior domain subject matter experts in the areas of self-directed harm, sexual violence, workplace violence, and family violence. In addition, the IPPW also includes three “tactical preventionists” who work directly with and advise unit leaders on command climate assessment data and the implementation of prevention activities. Lastly, the IPPW has a dedicated attorney advisor from the JAG Corps who provides legal assistance when needed. The IPPW is professionally credentialled annually through the Department of Defense.
The South Carolina National Guard’s IPPW uses a new approach which places a premium on addressing upstream drivers of harmful behaviors. “Our team uses a public health approach to oversee data-driven, research-informed primary prevention activities. These activities increase protective factors and reduce risk factors for multiple forms of harm and abuse. As these efforts gain momentum, they will help fundamentally improve our ability to cultivate healthy command climates, assist at-risk Service Members, and stop harmful behaviors before they occur,” Settlemyer said.
Since the program launched last fall, the biggest accomplishment the IPPW has achieved to date is the publishing of the state’s inaugural Comprehensive Integrated Primary Prevention (CIPP) Plan. Maj. Gen. Van McCarty, the South Carolina Adjutant General, signed the plan in March. “Simply put, the CIPP Plan is a road map to preventing harmful behaviors in our South Carolina National Guard military community,” Settlemyer said. The CIPP Plan, which will be developed annually and updated every six months, is part of a prevention system composed of human resources, collaborative relationships and infrastructure to support a prevention process which is a data driven effort that enables military communities to develop, implement and evaluate a comprehensive primary prevention approach.
Coming up, the IPPW will be taking over the implementation of the Force Wide Climate Survey (formerly known as the Defense Organizational Climate Survey - DEOCS) in August as it strives to gather and interpret data associated with the overall Command Climate Assessment (CCA). In addition to the Force Wide Climate Survey, the CCA also includes data points such as Unit Risk Inventories, focus groups and the Defense Organizational Climate Pulse (DOCP). Once evaluated, all this data will drive recommendations made to the TAG in the next annual CIPP Plan in January 2025 as the CIPP cycle starts again.
| Date Taken: | 05.29.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 05.29.2024 15:42 |
| Story ID: | 472485 |
| Location: | SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 1,495 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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Department of Defense
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National Guard Bureau
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