Mental Strength Resources

Our most lethal Soldiers are both physically and mentally fit (fast, agile, and strong), resilient to injury, and when they do get injuried, they bounce back quickly by maximizing the resources around them.

 

The following should be looked at as a means of not only treating mental health injuries but also as a means of injury prevention (resilience) and human performance optimization (Soldier Lethality). 

 

Though these resources are broken into seperate domains, each is important to the next and has considerable overlap in how we optimize mental performance. In other words, many of the things that you do and learn from the Prevention/Performance Optimization resources will be the same as what you do and learn in Behavioral Health. And, most injuries in the Army (both mental and physical) are progressive in in nature. 

 

Small physical or mental insults or injuries over time, that remain untreated, lead to bigger problems or crisis down the road.

 

It is like having a warning sensor go off in your car and then ignoring it until the engine fails, when the part to address the warning would have cost far less money, time, and effort!

Don't wait!! 

 

MENTAL STRENGTH BASICS

Mental readiness is the capacity to adapt successfully in the presence of risk and adversity.

 

It can be seen as a set of personality traits, an assortment of skills or ways of behaving and thinking, or a combination of both personality traits and behaviors.

 

Whether Soldiers think of mental readiness as something they have (such as a personality trait or disposition), something they do (such as a plan, strategy, or way of behaving), or something they believe (such as a faith, positive outlook, or neutral outlook), it will help Soldiers better understand uncertain situations and will make them aware of their own mental processes.

 

Under extreme duress, mental readiness is the ability to create a sense of total control and confidence. In the presence of chaos and uncertainty, possibility for flawed judgment increases. Mental readiness reduces miscalculation and errors of judgment. Soldiers who are mentally ready can manage severe stress and grow mentally tougher in the process.

Mental readiness depends on a range of the following factors:

Character: one’s true nature including identity, sense of purpose, values, virtues, morals, and conscience. Character, in an operational sense, is an Army professional’s dedication and adherence to the Army Ethic, including the Army Values, as consistently and faithfully demonstrated in decisions and actions.
Behavior: the outward expression of character
Resilience: the ability to face and cope with adversity; adapt to change; and recover, learn, and grow from setbacks.
Cognitive skill: the ability to expand and integrate knowledge into decisions. It drives the ability to make sound decisions.
Social acuity: the awareness of, control over, and ability to manage interactions with others

 

STRESS

Stress is a major part of leadership conditions. Major sources of stress include the ever-changing geopolitical situation, combat stress, operational stress and related fears, the rapid pace of change, and the increasing complexity of technology. A leader’s character and professional competence are important factors in mitigating stress for the organization and achieving mission accomplishment, despite environmental pressures and changes. When dealing with these factors, adaptability is essential to success.

Like conflict, some stress can be productive and increase motivation, job performance, and mission accomplishment. Studies show that people perform best when there is some stress in the workplace. If stress is too high, people will reach burnout. If stress is too low, they will become apathetic.

 

A leader must know how to manage stress, both when it is too stressful and not stressful enough. 

 

 

MASTER RESILIENCE TRAINING COURSE (MRTC)

 

RESILIENCE is a process that requires adoption of productive behaviors, thoughts, and actions that can be learned. RESILIENCE prepares you to deal with life’s challenges by giving you the ability to cope with adversity, adapt to change, and thrive under new conditions.

 

The 10 Day Master Resilience Training Course (MRTC) provides Soldiers with an opportunity to enhance their leadership and effectiveness and learn how to teach resilience skills to Soldiers, Family members, and Department of Army Civilians.

 

Students learn the six MRT competencies –Self-Awareness, Self-Regulation, Optimism, Mental Agility, Strengths of Character and Connection – that are shown to be critical characteristics of a resilient individual.

 

MRTC students also learn 14 distinct skills that allow them to develop themselves and others in the six MRT competency areas.

 

1. Goal Setting: Understand the key components of the 7-step goal setting process and practice the skill so it can be used independently to plan for achieving personal and career goals.

2. Hunt the Good Stuff: Counter the Negativity Bias, create positive emotion, and notice and analyze what is good.

3. Activating Events, Thoughts, Consequences: Identify your Thoughts about an Activating Event and the Consequences of those Thoughts.

4. Energy Management: Modulate energy to a level that is appropriate for the task-at-hand and that allows optimal performance.

5. Avoid Thinking Traps: Identify and correct counterproductive patterns in thinking through the use of Mental Cues and Critical Questions.

6. Detect Icebergs: Identify and evaluate core beliefs and core values that fuel out-of-proportion emotions and reactions.

7. Problem Solving: Accurately identify what caused the problem and identify solution strategies.

8. Put It In Perspective: Stop catastrophic thinking, reduce anxiety, and improve problem solving by identifying the Worst, Best, and Most Likely outcomes of a situation.

9. Mental Games: Change the focus from, or compartmentalize, counterproductive thinking to enable greater concentration and focus on the task at hand.

10. Real-Time Resilience: Shut down counterproductive thinking to enable greater concentration and focus on the task at hand.

11. Identify Character Strengths in Self and Others: Identify Character Strengths in yourself and in others to recognize the best of yourself and the best of others.

12. Character Strengths: Challenges and Leadership: Identify Character Strengths in yourself and in others to improve teamwork, overcome challenges, and to be the most effective leader you can be.

13. Assertive Communication: Communicate clearly and with respect. Use the IDEAL model to communicate in a Confident, Clear, and Controlled manner.

14. Effective Praise and Active Constructive Responding: Praise effectively to build mastery and winning streaks and respond to others to build strong relationships.

 

SLEEP AND BRAIN HEALTH

Like the rest of the body (for example, muscles, skin, and liver), the brain has physiological needs for food, water, and oxygen—basic needs that must be met not only to ensure proper brain functioning, but to sustain life itself.

 

However, unlike the rest of the body, the brain has one additional physiological need: sleep.
The brain requires sleep to maintain normal function. Sleep is necessary to sustain not only alertness, but also higher order cognitive abilities such as judgment, decision making, and situational awareness. In short, sleep makes Soldiers better at being Soldiers.

 

Adequate sleep is critical to mission success. In training and on the battlefield, inadequate sleep impairs many mission-critical aspects of performance such as reaction time, the ability to detect and engage the enemy, and squad tactic coordination – to name a few.

 

When asked about the connections between sleep and mission readiness, Soldiers and military leaders consistently recognize that sleep loss leads to accidents, poor morale, and impaired judgment. However, despite this, there remains a subculture within the force that considers sleep loss to be a “badge of honor” and "the Army way." They are wrong. In fact, the negative effects of sleep loss on brain function and health, and on military readiness and resilience, are profound and no one is immune.

 

SUICIDE PREVENTION

 

There is confidential help available for Soldiers, Veterans and their families through the Military Crisis Line at 1-800-273-8255, option 1 or by texting 838255.

 

Suicides rates continue to rise across the military. In FORSCOM alone, we lost over 100 Soldiers in CY21. This is equivalent to losing a full platoon of Soldiers.

 

A single suicide will effect 135 individuals on average but fewer than half of Army battalions will experience a death by suicide.

 

We need to remain vigilant and proactive.

 

Suicide crises are often brief...

• The interval between deciding to act and attempting suicide can be as short as 5 or 10 minutes , and people tend
  not to substitute a different method when a highly lethal method is unavailable or difficult to access

• 25 percent of suicide attempts advance from thought to action within 20 minutes or less

• 75 percent of suicide attempts advance from thought to action within 60 minutes or less

 

Time and space between a person in crisis and their access to lethal means is lifesaving.

 

Through a donation from the local VA office, the division has received over 5,000 gun locks for distribution. These locks can serve as a temporary means of creating time between lethal means. Click the contact us tab at the top of the page to request FREE gun locks for your unit.

 

Know and Reduce Risk Factors

1. Relationship Problems: 42% of Active Military suicides in 2019 had failed or failing relationships in the 90 days prior to death. 

2. Disciplinary problems/Work Setback: 28.5% of Active Military suicides in 2019 had admin or legal problems (ex. UCMJ, Admin Seperation Pending, MEB pending) 

3. Access to lethal means: 64% of Active Military suicides and 80% of suicides here at Fort Cambell died by firearms in 2019. 95% were personally owned. Owning a handgun and storing a loaded firearm are associated with increased risk of suicide two fold and
four fold respectively. Family members should help recognize the risk during periods of crisis/heitened emotions and commanders should promote safe storage practices.

4. Social/emotional isolation

5. Excessive Alcohol or drug use: 45% of suicides in the military involved drug and/or alcohol use

6. Financial loss/hardship: 5% of Active Military suicides had excess debt and/or bankruptcy in the 90 days prior to death in 2019

7. Major illness or medical problem

8. Spiritual despair: Lacking meaning in life

9. Major career transition: PCS, seperation, retirement

10. Death of a close familty member, friend, battle buddy

 

Strengthen Protective Factors

Ask yourself (and your Soldiers, peers, friends etc)...

When things get hard, who or what do you turn to to help get you through that moment?

If you lose that one thing do you have a 2nd or 3rd protective factor?

Are these all within yourself or rely on other people/things around you?

Is you squad leader or section leader one of these?

 

Forge and Strengthen Protective Factors

• Connections to friends, family, unit, and broader community: Do you matter to the team and does the team matter to you?

• Problem-Solving Skills (i.e. stress reduction techniques or self regulation (see H2F Cognitive Enhancement Specialist or R2 Performance Center to help with this)

• Emotional Regulation and mental agility

• Healthy Practices such as sleep, fitness, and nutrition all help regulate your mind and specifically cortisol (fight or flight hormone) regulation

• Peer support for care-seeking and bystander intervention (team/squad leader, battle buddy): ACE: Ask, Care, Escort

• Availability of physical and behavioral health care (see BN Surgeon, H2F, embedded Behavioral Health, MFLC, Military One Source)

• Cultural and spiritual beliefs to create a strong sense of self-awareness and meaning to life.

In the past, messaging has focused on obtaining behavioral health treatment during a crisis as the primary means of suicide prevention. Over the last year, however, the Military has updated its focus with the publishing of the new Commander’s Guides to Suicide Prevention. The new guide places more emphasis on prevention prior to the crisis. This is done through increasing visibility and understanding of both the leading risk factors and the leading protective factors for suicide, down to the lowest level. By building cohesion, understanding risk factors, and increasing protective factors, we hope to reverse the trend and protect the force.

 

 

 

THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE

Through the “This is My Squad” initiative, leaders were directed to focus on developing deep inter-personnel connections at the lowest levels so they better know their teammates. Each individual Soldier or Army Civilian has a teammate, a family, and a leader. By establishing a connection between these key individuals in their lives, we establish a “Golden Triangle” around our people. If those connections exist, someone in the triangle will likely know if one of our teammates is struggling.

 

 

 

 

 

At some point during your time here at the 101st Airborne (Air Assault) Division there will likely be a time when you are the Soldier in the middle of the Triangle. 

 

Are you prepared?

 

Do you have the interpersonal protective factors such as healthy lifestyle choices, stress management techniques, and mental resilience to get through the difficult time?

Do you have the multiple support factors around you to include your family, battle buddy, and section leader?

 

At some point during your time here at the 101st Airborne (Air Assault) Division there will likely be a time when one of your Soldiers or battle buddies is in the middle of the triangle. 

 

Are you prepared?

 

Do you know the Soldier's protective factors (have they lost one) and have you worked on building multiple layers of protective factors around the Soldier?

Do you know the resources around you to get help before it leads into a crisis (early intervention even before it ever needs to go to behavioral health)? 

 

RESOURCES AND INFORMATION

 

Download the Eagle Tribe Cohesion Guide for additional Information on Mental Strength, click here.

To visit the Army Ready and Resilient Directorate Website click here