Taking a preventative approach to helping Warren Airmen cope with military stressors

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Chad Thompson
  • 90th Space Wing Public Affairs
F.E. WARREN AIR FORCE BASE, Wyo. --  The Warren Mental Health Clinic celebrates National Professional Social Work Month in March by informing and educating Airmen and their families on the importance of seeking help early.

This year's focus is not only on education but building on people's strengths.

"This year we want to capitalize on not only the family advocacy mission, which is to prevent maltreatment, but we also want to build healthy, resilient Airmen and families," said 1st Lt. Janelle Weyer, Warren's family advocacy officer. "And that is in line with the social worker's mission: building strengths of individuals and enhancing their resiliency, especially now since we are at war."

"Resiliency is crucial, not only for our military but for family members as well, because everyone is more stressed these days," she explained.

Social workers are clinically trained to help people cope with life's difficulties by finding resources from within themselves or within their support system.

The mental health clinic has a wide variety of preventative classes to help educate Airmen on how to cope with stress, anger management, deployment difficulties, family issues, first-time parenting, substance abuse and family relationships.

"The great thing about being a social worker is we aren't limited in what we can do; we are similar to general practitioners," Lieutenant Weyer said. "Even though my main job is family advocacy, I also have an out-patient mental health case load, and I can assist with the [Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment program].

"So we are sort of jacks-of-all-trades, we are not really restricted to anything, except I am not a psychiatrist, so I can't prescribe medication, and I am not a psychologist, so I can't do any psychological testing or interpretation," she explained. "We want to try and provide as much prevention information as we can to enhance and increase the knowledge and the skills that the Airmen have from a strength-based systems perspective."

Lieutenant Weyer said one of the best things about the job is when she can get out from behind her desk and go out into the community to find out what the community needs are.

She said that one of the things she has heard is that Airmen and their families are having difficulties with are the three-day trips to the field.

With this community information, the mental health staff will incorporate some coping strategies in the pre- and post-deployment classes they already have and provide Airmen and their families a better understanding of what to expect during those trips to the missile field and some of the positive things they can do to have a more positive experience for the entire family.

Getting out into the community to uncover problems Airmen are having is important, but one of the more crucial aspects of social work is getting Airmen in touch with the right agencies, Lieutenant Weyer said.

"We work very closely with the Airman and family readiness center, the health and wellness center, the chaplains, and we have the People Helping People integrated delivery system, where all the helping agencies get together," she said. "We, like other agencies, have a certain expertise, and we will refer Airman to the appropriate agency to meet their needs. It's about getting the people the help that they need, whatever agency or organization that is, and that's what social workers do; we are kind of the networkers, the resource managers and the advocates for people," she explained.

Even though the mental health staff and social workers are really there to help, Airmen still have a stigma about seeking the help they need, but Lieutenant Weyer said she wants to put everyone at ease.

"There is a misconception that if you come to mental health for assistance, that you will either be separated from the military or be in trouble," she said. "In actuality, the primary focus is to return Airmen to duty more productive, happier and healthier by helping them learn skills and techniques to deal with life's stressors. Not seeking assistance and making poor choices is what gets Airmen in trouble, versus seeking services from mental health."