Team works to combat PTSD

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Amber Carter
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Approximately eight out of every 100 people will have posttraumatic stress disorder at some point in their lives, according to the National Center for PTSD. Due to the nature of military service, this number can increase for veterans.

In an effort to combat this growing statistic, Airmen at David Grant USAF Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base, California, helped create an Operation Combat PTSD Trauma-informed Leadership course to teach how to effectively lead individuals recovering from PTSD.

"The goal of the class is to produce leaders of all levels who understand posttraumatic stress so that when they have a troop with posttraumatic stress or PTSD they are able to understand what challenges the individual is facing, know the resources available to assist the member and lead that troop more effectively," said Capt. Laura Johnson, 60th Medical Operations Squadron clinical psychologist. "Additionally, leaders ourselves are not immune from PTS and so knowing how to recognize it in ourselves and reach out for help is a benefit of the class."

Johnson worked with the Operation Combat PTSD team to develop the course and has been a briefer as it has been rolled out to multiple organizations and units.

"Coming in from the civilian sector, I worked as a psychologist treating veterans with PTSD for seven years," Johnson said. "My experience with them was the main factor in joining the Air Force myself ... I saw too many veterans struggle for years with a disorder (PTSD) that is treatable. I wanted to be there with service members so that they did not wait so long to get the effective treatment they need."

The first Trauma-informed Leadership course at the Airman and Family Readiness Center was held Oct. 13. The next course will take place at 1 p.m. Jan. 12, 2016, at the AFRC.

"Awareness lets us recognize the signs ourselves when we need help, it lets us recognize the signs in our colleagues and loved ones when they are struggling and it helps us understand that the symptoms of PTSD are a reaction to a traumatic event," Johnson said. "They do not mean that we are broken or useless. This is one of the biggest misconceptions of PTSD - that it breaks people. Members coping with PTSD are some of the strongest people you will ever meet, but they need the right tools for the particular battle they are fighting."