Publication:Sea Talk Summer 2006/No Oscar for Mark

Reserve psychologist helps with mental health training

By LEUT Mark Rowell

Recently the Australian Centre for Post-Traumatic Mental Health (ACPMH) produced a series of instructional videos for Defence under the auspices of the Directorate of Mental Health.

The ACPMH is an internationally recognised centre of excellence at the University of Melbourne specialising in trauma-related research, policy, program development and training.

Deployed mental health is an issue of extreme importance in the ADF.

For example:

• Since 1999 the ADF has been monitoring drinking levels three months after operational deployment. In these populations 30 per cent have reported hazardous drinking and 10 per cent alcohol dependency.
• In financial year 97/98 the second leading cause of invalidity retirements accepted by the Department of Veterans Affairs were related to mental illness (11.9 per cent of claims). Of these posttraumatic stress disorder was the most common claim received.
• In 2000/01 depression and posttraumatic stress accounted for 4.2 per cent of military compensation claims.

The ACPMH videos are designed to provide realistic simulations for professional undergoing mental health training. They are designed to be shown to all three services and to provide relevant examples of situations that may arise in normal deployments.

With Army's Captain David Clarke posted to the ACPMH, they had no trouble simulating an Army scenario.

However an accurate simulation of the Navy environment proved more difficult as the opportunities to film on-board a ship are very limited in Victoria.

As a Navy psychologist, I was contacted and able to gain the permission for the team to film on board the (then) NUSHIP Perth. In all a psychiatrist, three psychologists and two officer cadets (as actors) were welcomed on board and filmed a successful series of vignettes highlighting mental health issues and responses in the sickbay.

While I don't expect to win any Oscars for my performance, I'd like to thank ship's company of HMAS Perth: they were friendly and extremely helpful, and should be congratulated for their assistance.