Warfighter Resiliency at Naval Health Clinic Quantico
By: Afua Ankrah and LTJG Kionna Myles
Care Giver Operational Stress Control (CgOSC) is a comprehensive program that is designed to prevent the detrimental effects of both acute and chronic stress. Unmanaged or mismanaged stress can invariably lead to staff burnout, compassion fatigue, interpersonal problems, impaired patient-staff interactions and decreased productivity. The efforts of CgOSC are intended to preserve and enhance psychological health. At Naval Health Clinic Quantico, we are committed to a safe and healthy work environment to meet our mission of providing worldwide readiness and world class care.
While CgOSC is not a novel program, Dr. Sam Stephens, psychologist, Naval Health Clinic Quantico, partnered with the CgOSC team to spearhead a novel approach in order to promote and support a culture of positive psychological health and resilience by implementing the Stress-O-Meter. The Naval Center for Combat & Operational Stress Control (NCCOSC) designed a standardized Stress-O-Meter tool based on the stress continuum model. This web-based resource provides a confidential real-time snapshot of staff members’ stress level. The Stress-O-Meter collects subjective information based on the stress continuum and creates a dashboard for command leadership. This dashboard illustrates the “temperature” of the command, directorate, or department to assist leaders with understanding staff stress levels and to determine if there is a need for CgOSC intervention.
Commanding Officer, Capt. Lonnie S. Hosea said, “Quantico is committed to supporting an operationally and clinically ready medical force as well as medically ready warriors and families. This means that mental health is physical health and we care about how our personnel are coping with day-to-day stressors. Warfighter resiliency is the key to ensuring we continue to develop a high-performing, resilient, adaptable force to support the defense of the United States today and tomorrow.”
At Naval Health Clinic Quantico, the Stress-O-Meter is designed as a pop-up window that appears when a staff member accesses our local command intranet (Figure 1). The pop-up window prompts staff members asking, “How are you coping with your stressors?”
All Stress-O-Meter data is stored on local secure SharePoint servers and only designated CgOSC personnel may access auto-generated report data. Reports can be viewed weekly, monthly, or quarterly by the command’s discretion.
The objective is to support the fundamental principles of early recognition, peer intervention, and connection with services to assist staff with the operational, occupational, and compassion demands of the job. This is critical in addressing stigmas, mitigating early stress reactions or injuries, and enhancing mission readiness.
In addition, our CgOSC Team will be training our staff to recognize occupational stress injuries early, to intervene as peers, and to connect affected peers with clinical support services as needed. CgOSC is an education and training model that is designed to enhance individual and unit stress management and is not a clinical mental health service. Appropriate referrals will be made to facilitate care for any staff members who may benefit from professional mental health treatment.
| Date Taken: | 11.02.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 11.02.2020 16:22 |
| Story ID: | 382235 |
| Location: | QUANTICO, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 274 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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