ATLANTA, - "Communication, collaboration and cooperation" was the focus of more than 400 Soldiers, Airmen and civilians from seven separate regions and five different prevention and intervention programs attending this year’s National Guard Health Promotion and Annual Prevention Training Workshop here this week.
"It’s all about supporting those Citizen-Soldiers and Airmen, and their families, and even folks in our sister services," said Army Maj. Gen. Larry H. Ross, the National Guard Bureau’s (NGB) Manpower and Personnel director. "We do that by maximizing the effect we have on the lives of our warriors and their families."
"If the Sexual Assault and Response, Psychological Health, Soldier Family Support, National Guard Prevention, Treatment and Outreach, and Joint Substance Abuse Prevention programs aren’t talking with each other, sharing ideas," Ross continued, "then the Guard runs the risk of losing the most important assets it has for protecting the homeland."
Command Chief Master Sgt. Denise Jelinski-Hall, NGB’s senior enlisted leader and advisor to the chief of the National Guard Bureau said that is where communication, collaboration and cooperation among the attendees come into play.
Typically, the five individual programs meeting here this week each hold their own workshops.
Some program administrators talk to each other, but many do not "because of that old standard, ‘it’s out of my lane,’" Ross said.
Alternatively, they seem not to want to share funding because "there’s only so much to go around, and if I give you some of mine, my program might suffer," he said. "It’s time to work harder at changing those attitudes."
This is the first time those who administer the programs have come together in one event, consolidating the first line of defense in the prevention and intervention of sexual and substance abuse within the service.
"Their call to arms is to come together, share what works for them, and what doesn’t, and then bring about cooperation between their programs," Jelinski-Hall said. "Only in this way can they and the Guard move forward."
In addressing the "spectrum of prevention," Nathan W. Galbreath, deputy director of the Department of Defense Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, said DoD and the services have been dealing with sex and substance abuse for nearly 30 years, but early attempts left a lot to be desired.
"Many of the programs provide information but no solutions," he said, "while others tout zero tolerance and never make allowances for what brought about the behavior and how to change it."
In nearly every case of sex and substance abuse, Galbreath added, the Guard loses its most valued resource: its people. It does not just lose the perpetrator; it also loses the victim.
"Today’s program manager and coordinator have to look more closely at coming together and using today’s tools – like social media and the Internet," he said. "Find out how you and your program can influence policy and command decisions.
"In this way, and through other means, you become more helpful toward changing the way we deal with the people who commit the unwanted act and those who fall victim to it," Galbreath said. "Thereby, you become more effective in changing behavior overall."
Lt. Col. Cheryl Hendrix, the Georgia Army Guard Sexual Assault Response Team coordinator, said she and her Air Guard counterparts – Lt. Col. Mike Rumsey of Warner Robbins’ 116th Air Control Wing and Lt. Col. Valerie Dunham with Savannah’s 165th Airlift Wing – are
networking with the other states.
"We’re doing everything we can to improve on the prevention part of what we do so that we don’t have to move toward the intervention part of our programs unless it’s absolutely necessary," she said.
"There’s so much we can learn from each other," said Felker, Georgia Counterdrug Task Force Joint Substance Abuse Prevention coordinator, "and Mr. Galbreath’s presentation certainly reinforced in me the drive to talk even more than I already am with my counterparts and other program coordinators."
After all, it’s all about supporting those great Americans who wear the uniform and the loved ones they leave behind when they answer duty’s call, Ross concluded. It’s about making want to make sure they have all the resources they need to do the job they’ve been asked to do.