The last thing any service member wants to do upon returning home from a deployment is spend an entire day in briefings. That's why the 633 Public Health Office is bringing its services to them in a new, condensed reintegration briefing.
Before starting their R&R, returning service members have to go through a reintegration briefing and complete required medical screenings as well as their Personal Health Assessment. In the past, Public Health provided a reintegration briefing along with all the other relevant agencies, and then service members would have to go to the hospital to complete their medical requirements.
Now, after a successful trial run with an initial group at the Logistics Readiness Squadron building, Public Health has brought everything to one location so members don’t have to go to the hospital. Reintegration for Individual Medical Readiness includes a blood draw, personal health assessment questionnaire, preventative health assessment questionnaire, occupational health screenings, mental health assessment and an in-person post-deployment health assessment.
“When you come back from a deployment, your goal is to get back to your family,” said Tech. Sgt. Candace Kime, section chief for Force Self-Management in Public Health. “What better way than to make this as seamless as possible?”
With help from the 633d Communications Squadron, returning Airmen were able to log on to computers on-site in order to complete their questionnaires instead of going back to their units to do so.
In addition, Public Health staff set up stations with equipment for the required blood draw, and a post-deployment medical provider was present to complete the health and mental health assessments.
Public Health technicians were also on site to ensure medical requirements were met and medically clear service members.
Kime’s long-term goal is to establish a permanent location for these reintegration briefings in order to have one spot for Public Health to help Airmen complete their medical requirements along with their other post-deployment information from agencies such as finance, safety and Airmen & Family Readiness.
The entire event cleared around 80 Airmen in approximately one hour because they didn’t have to go to Public Health and Laboratory after the briefings from the other agencies.
“We’ve had these reintegration briefings for a long time, but now all of the agencies are coming together to make it a one-stop-shop,” said Kime. “Let’s make this as easy as possible. Let’s welcome our Airmen home the right way.”