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JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii - “Why do we fall? So we can pick ourselves up.”
Dr. Mary Bartlett poised that question and answer to service members and their family during a Resilience/Suicide Awareness training held at Sharkey Theater on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Sept. 18.
“Take a good look around,” Bartlett asked the audience. “One in six people will think briefly about committing suicide during their lifetime. Whether those people act on that thought or not depends on the circumstances.”
Bartlett, a licensed professional counselor with 18 years experience in behavioral health, focused her presentation on teaching strategies to prevent suicide and talked about a different approach by the Department of Defense for suicide prevention training.
Suicide prevention training has changed over the years and now military members are encouraged to incorporate resilience training into their on and off-duty activities, which will help to build a more capable, effective and mission-ready workforce.
“Life throws us curves and all of us will have to face adversity, but resilience is our capacity to bounce back from whatever happens in our life,” Bartlett stressed.
Instead of focusing on weaknesses, military members should focus on their strengths, she said. If we are connected, flexible, hopeful and grateful, the chances are we will be able to help lift up our brothers and sisters in arms.
The training was a part of the Navy’s “One Small ACT” campaign and it was open to all ranks and branches of military.
“I really like that theme because it’s empowering,” said Lt. Rebecca Miranda, a social worker and a suicide prevention program manager for the Military Family Support Center at the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPHH). “I feel hopeless when I hear about statistics and suicide. We keep pondering the stories of why somebody committed suicide, but we should shift our focus to what we can do to prevent it from happening.”
Miranda said that when we see our shipmates struggle and we know they are acting out of the ordinary, we need to have the courage to ask the question “are you going to kill yourself?”
“Asking is the hardest thing,” said Miranda. “We all have problems and we all have issues, but we also have each other.”
For more information about suicide prevention, call Lt. Rebecca Miranda, suicide prevention program manager for the Military and Family Support Center, at 474-0045 or email rebecca.miranda@navy.mil.
| Date Taken: | 09.21.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 09.22.2015 20:10 |
| Story ID: | 176786 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 53 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Courage to ACT, by CPO Katarzyna Kobiljak, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
