There are many mental health resources available to service members, families, and civilians at U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys.
SEE THE ORIGINAL
CAMP HUMPHREYS, Republic of Korea (January 21, 2022) – U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys, along with military communities around the world, continues to deal with the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, in addition to the daily demands of work and of family life. Three Camp Humphreys mental health programs recently shared their current and upcoming prevention resources and programs that can help members of the Humphreys community maintain a healthy state of mind, as stress is inevitable and seeking help keeps you strong.
“Mental health is considered a medical need like going to the dentist. If you had a toothache, wouldn’t you go to the dentist right away? Seek medical treatment and solve the problem? Mental health needs are part of normal life. We may encounter stress, frustration or a crisis. We can’t control how stressors come into our lives, but we can change the way we seek help,” said Olivia Bourke, Family Advocacy Program Specialist at the Community Service Office of U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys.
At Camp Humphreys, there are programs and resources to help families, military members, civilians and retirees overcome their stressors to keep them in the best frame of mind. Military and family life counselors are a great way to start. MFLCs are licensed social workers and therapists who provide individual and group sessions to service members and their families.
“The benefit of having these MFLCs available is that you can go into ACS and see any of our rotational providers and they won’t document in your medical records, so there’s a bit of privacy,” said Bourke, a Louisville, Kentucky, native of. “I like telling people if you just need to talk to someone which is a good place to start.”
In addition to rotating MFLCs, many units at Camp Humphreys have a built-in MFLC that specifically provides support to them, Bourke added. The MFLC list is readily available at ACS as well as on the USAG Humphreys ACS Facebook page.
Maybe communicating your feelings and thoughts is hard to do, so resources like the Family Advocacy Program can provide you with the tools to declutter your mind and free your thoughts in a healthy way.
“We’re really working on building families with parenting communication tools or with couples or trying to figure out how to better communicate with their partner or with their friends, so those are really good resources that our team provides,” Bourke said. . “At the FAP, we want to build strong families to help our soldiers – whether they are married or single – to put these prevention tools in place so that they can manage their stress or what is going on in their lives from healthy way.”
When you need to get down on your knees and receive help beyond what an MFLC, chaplain or FAP can do, you can get a referral from your counselor or you can refer yourself to the behavioral health clinic. Located at the Brian D. Allgood Army Community Hospital, the clinic provides inpatient and outpatient care to military, civilians, families, and retirees.
“Our inpatient services will be available to everyone: GS employees, civilian contractors, command and non-command sponsored dependents and our retirees. They can also receive emergent behavioral health services through the emergency room, where behavioral health providers are on call 24 hours a day,” said Maj. Cassandra Webb, deputy facility director for psychological health at BDAACH.
“Additionally, we can only see command-sponsored, active-duty service members for ongoing therapy on the outpatient side,” Webb, a native of Jackson, Mississippi, continued. “We can integrate acute services for non-sponsors and retirees. We just won’t be able to track them regularly. Once we’ve stabilized them for acute services, we can then turn around and direct them to available host nation resources.
The intensive outpatient behavioral health program will begin Feb. 7 for service members who need more frequent sessions.
“We are going to go to five days a week for four weeks. We will provide intense behavioral health treatment to soldiers who require more than one session per week. Access to this service normally comes from their primary treatment provider,” said Lt. Col. Shamecca Scott, Facility Director of Psychological Health with BDAACH and a native of Baltimore, Maryland. “They are oriented towards this service. Again, the services that are offered are more like emotional regulation, learning, adapting coping skills, and stress management, and that’s done in groups.
Civilian employees can approach the Employee Assistance Program for non-clinical counseling and prevention programs. According to Bourke, this program falls under the Camp Humphreys Army Substance Abuse Program. EAP also helps civilians navigate the resources available to them in the surrounding Korean community.
“When it comes to civilian employees, I will always tell people that a good place to start is with the EAP,” Bourke said. “They’re just a really good resource for everything.”
Major Charles Williams, behavioral health officer assigned to the clinical operations of the 65th Medical Brigade, added that retirees can contact the Military OneSource Seoul counseling center, You & Me psychological and counseling services and the doctor on request. for behavioral health assistance.
Behavioral health professionals agree that leadership can have a big impact on subordinates by being transparent about their own struggles. By sharing their stories, leaders can encourage others to seek help and reduce the stigma often associated with seeking mental health treatment.
“One way to break the stigma is for older people to be honest about their own behavioral health issues. I find it to be the most effective. When commanders preach that it’s okay if you need to get down on your knees and get help, ‘we’ll plead for you’, that helps reduce the stigma,” said Williams, originally from Pompano, Florida. “It’s a constant battle to let people know that when you come to behavioral health, you act strong because it takes someone with great strength to admit ‘I can’t do it all on my own’.”
There are resources ready to help, and these garrison organizations want the community to know how to find them.
“We have a segment on AFN where we do Mental Health Mondays, which is once a month. Major Williams did this the last time we promoted and informed the community about behavioral health services. We are also involved with the MFLC, so this is also posted on the ACS Facebook page,” Scott said. “We have resources posted in ISOFAC for soldiers who have been diagnosed with COVID and are currently in isolation. We have resources that are available in the COVAX center and drop-in center for people who are PCSing at Camp Humphreys, so they can be aware of the behavioral health resources that are on duty.
Below are some of the resources available to the Humphreys community.
● Family Advocacy Program at DSN: 737-5799
● List of military and family life counselors on Facebook: USAG Humphreys ACS
● Behavioral health resources:
○ 2nd Division Support Brigade and Rotational Units under 2ID Warrior Behavioral Health Clinic at DSN 737-5177
○ 2nd Combat Aviation Brigade and 1st Signal Brigade Jenkins Behavioral Health Clinic DSN 737-5791
○ All other service members and dependents sponsored by Command Brian D. Allgood Army Community Hospital DSN 737-5668/5844
● Employee Assistance Program at DSN 755-1086
● On-Call Unity Ministry Teams: 010-9496-7445
● Crisis Response: At DSN 911 or cellphone 031-690-7911; off post 119
● Korea-Wide Suicide Crisis Lifeline (USFK) DSN 118 or cell 080-8555-118
● Suicide Hotline (Servicemen and Veterans): 050-337-4673 (press 1), 1-800-273-8255 (press 1)
● Online crisis chat: www.veteranscrisisline.net/get-help/chat
● Medical emergencies: Emergencies at BDAACH, building 3030
● Domestic Violence Victim Advocacy Hotline at DSN 153 or 050-3364-5997
● Financial Readiness Program – Army Emergency Relief at DSN 757-2363
● Job readiness program at DSN 757-2363
Comments are closed.