Photo By Mark Getman | New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo speaks with New York National Guard Soldiers and...... read more read more
Subscribe
LATHAM, NY--Soldiers and Airmen who reported support from leaders and unit members, handled the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic better than those who reported otherwise, according to a survey of 3,933 New York National Guard Soldiers and Airmen.
The 75 percent of survey respondents who reported that leaders and peers were encouraging, reported lower stress and fewer days of bad physical and mental health than the 25 percent who answered in the negative to those questions.
Survey respondents were asked what caused stress, and ways they were controlling stress. Half of those who answered had been on the COVID-19 response mission.
Time outdoors, exercise, talking to family and friends, and following a daily routine were good ways to control stress, according to the survey.
The top stressors, Airmen and Soldiers reported, were not having access to exercise equipment, working long hours on duty, being away from family, and the fear of bringing the virus home.
About half of those who took the online survey were among the 5,066 Soldiers and Airmen who took part in the COVID-19 pandemic response mission during 2020.
The COVID-19 Warfighter Resilience and Readiness Survey was conducted by the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences between August and December 2020.
A third of the survey participants reported a personal experience with COVID 19. This ranged from knowing somebody who died, to losing a job due to the pandemic, to having friends or family contract the virus or getting it themselves.
Sixty-four percent of the survey participants said they had been worried about contracting COVID-19.
These stressors resulted in 20 percent of the respondents saying their work was effected by their mood.
But 75 percent of the Soldiers and Airmen reported that fellow Guard members and unit leaders were supportive and that their unit stuck together.
These Guardsmen reported lower stress levels and fewer bad days.
That, said Major General Ray Shields, the Adjutant General of New York, is a good news story.
“I was pleased to see that 75 percent of respondents felt that leadership at all levels cared for their well-being. I think that is a positive element from the surveys,” he said.
The survey was the brainchild of officials at the National Guard Bureau’s Warrior Resilience and Fitness Division.
New York was selected, according to National Guard Bureau, because of the large number of COVID-19 cases in the state, and because of the New York National Guard’s “robust” response to the pandemic.
When National Guard proposed the survey to Shields, he decided to take them up on the idea.
“We are always looking at the safety and health of our service members,” Shields said. “Knowing that many aspects of the COVID response were stressful to our service members we thought it was appropriate to study those stressors and to look for mitigation strategies.”
“We feel we have obtained a much better picture regarding the stress on our force and how we can assist our service members in moving forward,” he added.
The online survey took between 20 and 25 minutes to complete, said Lt. Col. Scott Golden, the deputy commander of New York Army National Guard Medical Command. Only about 3,000 Soldiers and Airmen finished the entire survey, but there were still enough respondents for valid findings, Golden said.
The number of Soldiers and Airmen who answered all or part of the survey was about a quarter of the 16,000 members of the New York National Guard.
This is the first survey of National Guard Soldiers and Airmen and how the pandemic impacted the force, according to National Guard Bureau.
The responses will be used to help leaders, medical personnel, and chaplains across the force craft ways to help Soldiers and Airmen cope.
U.S. Public Health Service Captain (Dr.) Joshua Morganstein, who helped design and administer the survey, said the results “showed how important support from unit members and supervisors is to protecting health.”
“This is something we have long observed and believed to be the case but the results of the survey provide important empirical evidence of this idea,” Morganstein said in an email.
”When leaders and unit members reach out to help others in their unit, this reduces stress and protects overall health.”
The survey results also indicated that Airmen and Soldiers with a personal experience of COVID-19 experienced more stress, Morganstein added. Personnel experience can increase empathy but it can also create risks, he explained.
Finally, what a Soldier or Airmen did during the COVID-19 activation, rather than simply being on duty, also effected their stress levels and health.
The lessons learned from the New York National Guard survey are relevant across the Department of Defense, Morganstein said. The “protective effects” of unit and leadership support are particularly important, he added.
“There are risks and protective factors that service members ‘carry in’ to the event and things to which they are exposed during the event which can similarly bring risk or protection,” he wrote.
| Date Taken: | 04.16.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 04.19.2021 14:12 |
| Story ID: | 394035 |
| Location: | LATHAM , NY, US |
| Web Views: | 32 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Good leaders reduce stress, NY National Guard pandemic survey shows, by Eric Durr, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
Army National Guard
LEAVE A COMMENT