PENSACOLA, Fla. – The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) awarded Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Heather Selvie, a Pensacola, Florida native, as Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Program (SARP) Active-Duty Counselor of the Year for fiscal year 2023.
BUMED selects one service member and one civilian SARP counselor based upon contributions to their clinic or team during the fiscal year. The award recognizes and encourages outstanding contributions and services to promote excellence and spotlights superior SARP counselors serving in each community.
Selvie served as a SARP counselor for Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command (NMRTC) Pensacola from October 2022 to September 2023 while stationed at Naval Branch Health Clinic (NBHC) Belle Chasse in New Orleans.
“I have the privilege to help treat and heal those in the armed forces, so they can return to the fleet with the readiness to complete the mission at hand,” said Selvie.
The role of the SARP counselor aims to provide support and guidance to service members struggling with addiction, fostering their recovery and successful reintegration into duty. Their primary objectives include facilitating individual and group counseling sessions, offering education on substance abuse prevention, and collaborating with healthcare providers to ensure comprehensive care.
“The Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Program is important to me because it enables people to counteract addiction's disruptive effects on their brain and behavior and regain control of their lives,” said Selvie. “I have an opportunity to actively listen, engage in a nonjudgmental way, treat patients with respect, and help patients understand I am here to help them get the treatment they need, and recovery is possible.”
As a SARP counselor, Selvie delivered service to 4,800 beneficiaries from 66 tenant commands, which included 1,576 hours of clinical care, 118 counseling sessions and 119 case reviews at NBHC Belle Chasse.
“I was thrilled but not surprised,” said U.S. Public Health Service Cmdr. Wade Keckler, NMRTC Pensacola senior mental health executive. “Selvie is an extremely qualified and talented SARP counselor and Sailor who has excelled at a challenging position. She was the first SARP counselor ever stationed at NBHC Belle Chasse, part of the command’s priority to establish SARP services in the New Orleans area.”
NMRTC Pensacola, including all ten branch clinics, enlist the aid of eight highly trained service members to serve as SARP counselors in their respective regions.
“It represents the high quality of work that Selvie has provided for our patients and our command,” said Keckler. “It also represents the quality of work that the NBHC Belle Chasse Behavioral Health staff and the clinic provide on an ongoing basis. We ask our SARP counselors to do very challenging work on an ongoing basis, and they have excelled beyond expectations.
According to Keckler, the fiscal year 2023 award marks the fourth year in a row that a NMRTC Pensacola SARP counselor has won this prestigious achievement.
NMRTC Pensacola has been providing care since 1826 and includes ten branch clinics across five states – Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Indiana. Approximately 125,000 patients are enrolled for care at the hospital and the branch clinics.
| Date Taken: | 04.23.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 04.23.2024 16:53 |
| Story ID: | 469305 |
| Location: | PENSACOLA, FL, US |
| Hometown: | PENSACOLA, FL, US |
| Web Views: | 99 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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