DGMC provides Traumatic Stress Response for units in distress

  • Published
  • By Capt. Susana Castellanos and 1st Lt. Heather Bautista
  • 60th Medical Operations Squadron
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Post-traumatic stress disorder is a term that has gained a great deal of attention in the past few years. PTSD is a disorder diagnosed after an individual has experienced a traumatic event and responded to the event with intense emotions.

Some symptoms of PTSD include re-experiencing the event through dreams or recurrent distressing recollections of the event, attempts to avoid any associations with the event (movies, news stories) and emotional numbing. Individuals suffering from PTSD may avoid thoughts, feelings or places that arouse recollections of the trauma. Sleep patterns may also be affected with intense dreams or nightmares, and feelings of anxiety may persist for several weeks or months.

PTSD is not simply a failure to "suck it up" or something seen in Hollywood-produced war movies. According to the National Veteran's Foundation, the Department of Veterans Affairs has seen a tenfold increase in PTSD cases in the last year. PTSD has a prevalence rate ranging as high as 19.9 percent in populations exposed to war. These rates do not include individuals who have been exposed to other traumatic events (deaths, violence, natural and man made disasters, etc.).

Of special note is the increasing likelihood of PTSD symptoms or the disorder in military personnel facing trauma through repeated deployments.

The Departments of Defense, Air Force and Veterans Affairs are making every effort to support our troops through pre-deployment health screenings, pre-deployment training and combat skills training. They are also making mental health and combat stress facilities more available at deployed locations offering health screenings before redeployment, providing reintegration briefings and following up deployed personnel with health screenings six months after return from deployment.

Additionally, in March 2006, Air Force Instruction 44-153, "Traumatic Stress Response" was released and replaced previous disaster intervention guidance known as Critical Incident Stress Management.

The Traumatic Stress Response program is maintained by the David Grant USAF Medical Center's Mental Health clinic and is composed of MHC providers, chaplains, and staff from the Airman and Family Readiness Center.

The TSR team has three main goals:
1. Serve as trauma response consultants to unit leaders;
2. Prepare personnel likely to be exposed to potentially traumatic events
3. Provide screening, education, psychological first aid and referral for those exposed to potentially traumatic events

For those individuals and units likely to experience potentially traumatic events, the TSR team will provide pre-exposure preparations, focusing on effective approaches to trauma stress management, resiliency and normalizing emotions.

For those individuals and units exposed to potentially traumatic stress, the TSR will provide psychological first aid, rescue and recovery environmental observations, outreach and information referrals, technical assistance, consultation and training, foster resilience and recovery, triage and treatment.

Most importantly, for many troops afraid of the "stigma" associated with mental health care, AFI 44-153 allows four visits with any member of the TSR team for any personnel exposed to a traumatic incident, without requiring documentation in medical records. These meetings are for education and consultation and not for medical assessment and treatment.

For more information on PTSD, visit the PTSD Information Center at: http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/ncmain/information/

If you would like assistance from the TSR team, contact DGMC's Mental Health clinic at 707-423-5174 during normal duty hours. For urgent assistance after duty hours, weekends and holidays, call 707-436-9401.