Event Date : 9-Nov-2021 : 8.30 AM
Closing at 8-Nov-2021 : 4.30 PM
Organizer : Wellbeing Australia
Venue : online
Address : online via Zoom
Convenor : Jacqui Van de Velde (jacqui@vandevelde.com.au)
Many welfare workers, both military and civilian, steer clear of taking on service personnel or veterans, who have been the victims of operational or combat operational stress injury. There are three main reasons for this:
Fear around “saying something that might make them worse.”
Belief that there are “experts around who should see them.”
Fear of vicarious traumatisation
This workshop addresses all three of the above.
The various techniques of the Solution Focused (SF) approach for this client group have been field-tested successfully over many years; and, indeed, a sizable number are evidence-based. These techniques have proved effective and transferable across many severe trauma survival fields. These include sudden death, mass shootings, terrorist incidents, natural disasters, road traffic collisions, plane crashes, rape, adult survivors of child abuse and near-death experiences. This workshop will be both affirming and enabling participants to increase their confidence in taking on military veterans who have been the victims of operational or combat operational stress. Yvonne Dolan’s model of victim-survivor-thriver/living life well is followed closely, as the workshop unfolds.
There will be ample information about how workers can be most helpful to those affected and the most effective questions to ask. Information will be provided on what clients have said they found most helpful; and, also, what workers can do to protect themselves from vicarious traumatisation, as the work progresses.
The workshop addresses the 5 areas of concern for military veterans:
dealing with triggers;
flashbacks;
intrusive thoughts;
‘the lows’; and,
sleep disturbance.
In order to help veterans move from surviving to thriving (living life well) an additional set of techniques is included. Workshop participants are made aware of over 100 techniques available to them, for helping veterans regain control and thrive.
This workshop covers the barest minimum of information about theoretical considerations and awareness. Essentially, it is both a practical and “how-to-do-it” workshop.
Delivery of the course is live via Zoom. It is interactive. The facilitator will present and discuss the application SF techniques then participants are given opportunities in small groups to practise the conversation techniques and reflect with peers and the trainer on those techniques and applications. All participants will receive a comprehensive workbook with the conversation techniques and workshop slides for future reference. Participants are surveyed pre-workshop and pos-tworkshop to self scale on their confidence levels to direct conversation with a person who expresses suicidal thoughts or intentions towards a safe and positive outcome. In the 3 months post workshop, participants will be followed up by telephone/video call interviews to check how those confidence levels are maintained and to ascertain the level of embedded technique practice.
The workshops have been organised in response to the feedback received from the VWS2019 event where participants asked for the opportunity to learn about and acquire specific skills in managing wellbeing, mental health, and suicide prevention. The workshops are being offered to the Veteran Wellbeing Summit target group of serving and ex-serving ADF, their partners, family members at no cost. Others outside of the target group are charged a small fee to participate. The workshop is designed for those with or without specific psychological training as a skill set to assist them when working with clients in ESO and welfare settings.
