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In September, rescue Airmen from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, deployed to the Southeastern U.S. in response to Hurricane Helene. Unsure what challenges the Airmen might encounter, True North mental health providers were on standby to take their calls and offer support.
The providers postured to provide care to Airmen from the 48th, 79th, 55th Rescue Squadrons and the 563rd Operations Support Squadron, who deployed together to form the 563rd Personnel Recovery Task Force, during search, rescue and recovery missions in the mountainous region of North Carolina.
“While on their mission, True North’s support of the Davis-Monthan rescue community consisted of availability for therapy sessions and maintaining consistent schedules of mobility and meditation classes,” said Teresa Perrin, 355th Wing True North program manager. “The four embedded True North providers in the 563rd Rescue Group continue to make themselves available to unit members, ensuring those affected by this mission have support as needed.”
True North is an Air Force-wide resiliency program that focuses on prevention while also providing counseling services as licensed clinical social workers (LCSWs) and clinical psychologists. True North embeds within units that are high-risk for work and life stressors, such as maintenance, security forces, rescue and intel.
Right now, True North providers are focused on supporting rescue Airmen dealing with mental health stressors that come with working on the front lines of humanitarian aid missions.
“So many of our Airmen are ready for combat, but it’s a little different when they’re rescuing U.S. citizens, especially children, and seeing the devastation within their own country, and sometimes within their own hometowns,” said Dr. Aaron Moffett, Air Combat Command True North program manager. “Airmen can sometimes compartmentalize what they see when it’s combat, but when it’s a humanitarian mission, it can be a little different for them.”
True North providers are also supporting at least a dozen Airmen at Moody AFB who lost their homes due to Hurricane Helene’s destruction.
“The providers have gone into overdrive by working with helping agencies within the community and on base, whether it’s with childcare assistance or mental health counseling,” said Moffett.
Even while facing their own challenges due to Helene, True North providers still put Airmen first.
“During the storm, a tree landed on my garage, blocking in my vehicle, and I lost power to my home about a week,” said Laura Iandoli, 93rd Air Ground Operations Wing True North LCSW. “Initially cell service was down, but when able, I stayed in contact with leadership regarding Airmen who had devastating damage to their homes.”
True North providers only administer mental health counseling to uniformed members but can also provide training and resources to members’ families by working with community partners. True North also has 14 religious support teams across ACC, consisting of active-duty chaplains and religious affairs Airmen who can support military families.
True North collaborates with both the chaplain corps and the mental health clinic. What differentiates True North from these support programs is that providers are embedded within a unit.
“The average wait to see a True North provider embedded within one’s unit is one week, if not sooner,” said Dr. Moffett. “We’ve been able to increase access to care by about 300 percent.”
Embedding practitioners provides commanders with prevention tools to help increase the resilience of their units and unit members, optimize human performance and enhance force and family well-being.
Specifically, True North uses a prevention model to engage forces and families early, normalize help-seeking behavior as a strength, and provide decentralized care options through the placement of helping resources closer to the forces they support.
“Our True North providers rock— they absolutely embed themselves and become teammates,” said Moffett. “There’s still a stigma about going to the mental health clinic, but True North gives Airmen an option to turn to a teammate with specialty care.”
Air Force True North and Talent Acquisition are currently hosting a digital hiring event that lasts through Nov. 16. ACC True North is advertising seven vacant positions at the hiring event.
To learn more or to apply, visit the hiring website here: https://afcs.experience.crmforce.mil/s/events?eventId=a0283000000zp9BAAQ
| Date Taken: | 11.07.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 11.07.2024 10:10 |
| Story ID: | 484828 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 21 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, True North providers support Airmen near and far, by Erin Wood, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
