Photo By Douglas Stutz | By Douglas H Stutz, NHB/NMRTC Bremerton public affairs officer -- Naval Hospital...... read more read more
Naval Hospital Bremerton will hold a Mental Health Open House, September 26, 2023.
The event, held in conjunction with September recognized throughout the Defense Health Agency as Suicide Prevention and Awareness month, will start with a suicide prevention presentation at 8 a.m., followed by the open house in Mental Health department.
“The purpose of the Mental Health Open House is to bring awareness to Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, showcase the services that Mental Health department offers, and discuss how to access care with the appropriate resources,” explained Lt. Cmdr. Ann Hummel, Ph.D., ABPP, Mental Health/Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Program department head. “The open house creates a unique opportunity to attend a variety of mental health educational sessions and meet our staff and community partners.”
Topics to be addressed include dialectical behavior therapy, psychometric testing and psychiatry services. Attendees can also learn about the life cycle of a mental health referral, how to access mental health care at Naval Hospital Bremerton and meet the Mental Health department providers and staff.
“All eligible beneficiaries are welcome,” added Hummel.
Navy Region Northwest Fleet and Family Support Program will also be on hand to share their mental health resources which include classes on such topics as Resiliency Skills, Mind-Body Mental Fitness, Stress Management, Time Management and Organization, Finances, Anger Management and Career Development.
Mental Health clinical services available at NHB include prevention and outreach; care entry screening; psychological assessment, diagnosis, treatment, consultation (by individual and in group psychotherapy); psychiatric medication evaluation and management; Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Program; and disaster response.
Hummel notes that active duty personnel may be referred or present themselves without a referral. Depending on access to case availability, active duty will be seen in the Mental Health Clinic or could be referred to see a community provider via TRICARE, depending on clinical factors, such as in psychotherapy without concerns for duty status. Non-active duty beneficiaries are seen by community providers via TRICARE.
A relatively new program is the Outpatient Cognitive Intervention Program which offers active duty personnel a structured week-long outpatient therapy program.
Mental Health’s SARP provides substance use disorder assessment, treatment, recovery, and continuing care. The counselors also conduct screening, assessment, treatment, group therapy, individual counseling, and education for active duty service members who get referred by their command Drug and Alcohol Program Advisors. Non-active duty beneficiaries are seen in the community through TRICARE.
The Commander Navy Region Northwest webpage lists that there are approximately 25,041 active duty service members, 3,600 reservists and 20,974 civilian employees, along with more than 2,400 contractors, 42,000 family members, and 99,200 retirees in the area.
According to Hummel, her department provided mental health care support to those eligible beneficiaries, with over 12,000 appointments alone in 2022, comprised of more than 5,450 adult psychiatry visits, approximately 1,780 adult psychology visits, nearly 5,000 SARP referrals and 143 Tobacco Cessation patients.
But there is continual awareness to continue to remind all those of the services available.
NHB’s Mental Health also provides a wide array of outpatient behavioral health services including individual psychotherapy, operational and readiness-related psychological evaluations, and Personnel Reliability Program personnel evaluations to Sailors, Marines and Coast Guard across tenet commands in the region.
“Many resources are available for service members, dependents, and civilians,” stressed Hummel, noting that service members and their families can use resources such as Fleet and Family Support Center (Blue: 800-562-3301/360-396-4115, Gold/after hours: 866-854-0638), MilitaryOneSource (800-342-9647), Families OverComing Under Stress (FOCUS; 253-966-6390), and the military health system.
General schedule civilian staff can use their Employee Assistance Program (Department of Defense: 1-866-580-9046), healthcare benefit, and local resources; contractors can use their equivalent.
Retirees can also use local resources and their healthcare benefit. Local resources include Salish Regional Crisis Line at 888-910-0416, and Kitsap County Suicide Prevention at https://www.kitsapgov.com/hs/Pages/Suicide-Prevention-Website.aspx
Free, confidential, 24/7, 365-day-a-year treatment referral and information service is available through the National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). The National Suicide Prevention Line is 988. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has further information and resources at https://www.samhsa.gov/
There is also a high level of clinical involvement by hospital corpsmen with behavioral health technician specialty expertise, characterized in 2022 by their engagement in 134 safety [wellness] checks, 304 access-to-care appointments and 65 group therapy sessions as well as individual patient follow-up care.
Additionally, the BHTs in SARP engaged in clinical logistics support, including receipt and review of 304 Drug and Alcohol Program Advisor packages on behalf of service members from commands throughout the Pacific Northwest region. They also scheduled 282 screening appointments for those engaged with their command DAPA as self-referrals or command referrals, and coordinated appropriate level of care needs for more than several hundred patients within the clinic or by way of clinical placement through case management.
“Mental health matters. Our hope is that those attending feel empowered to improve their mental health using evidence-based practices,” stated Hummel.
| Date Taken: | 09.15.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 09.15.2023 12:20 |
| Story ID: | 453533 |
| Location: | BREMERTON , WA, US |
| Web Views: | 128 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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