An Cosantóir

37 Modern life is complicated! It has its stresses and its pressures and we all need to be on top of our game to get through it. This is all the more true when we add in the extra ingredient of service in the Defence Forces. Regular overseas deployments, a highly flexible working routine, exacting training environments and operating in a team with the highest of professional standards all place demands on our personnel and on their families. The good news is that the Defence Forces provides support to help us to mitigate some of the effects and to ensure that while service in the Defence Forces may be demanding, it is also enjoyable, satisfying and rewarding. One of the principle supports available is the Personnel Support Service (PSS). The Defence Forces Personnel Support Service is very familiar to all serving members of the Defence Forces and their families. Our mission is to provide support to all military personnel and their families equally and without regard to rank, length of service, formation or geographical location. This includes our colleagues who are deployed overseas and especially their families. We also support civilian employees of the Defence Forces and provide a limited service to our veterans. We provide information across a wide variety of issues, including personal finances and pay, mental health and wellbeing and general personal information. The PSS team is a highly motivated and multi-disciplinary group of people who are available to support personnel across the country and overseas. Some of us are trained non-commissioned officers who fulfil the role of Barrack Personnel Support Officers (BPSSO), who bring a wealth of military knowledge and experience to complement their work. Some of us are also Occupational Social Workers (OSW), who bring an extra dimension of professionalism, experience and perspective which greatly enhances our ability to do our work in an effective manner. There is a PSS staff officer in each formation HQ in the Defence Forces. The PSS provides standard employee assistance to all serving personnel. In addition we are responsible for delivering mental health and wellbeing training and education throughout the Defence Forces. We provide training Interventions to deal with issues such as mental resilience and coping with stress, and suicide prevention and awareness. This is a critically important part of our work and we cooperate with competent and trusted partner organisations to ensure that our work is effective. The National Office for Suicide Prevention provides us with valuable support in delivering interventions related to the prevention of suicide within the Defence Forces - while we work closely with Mental Health First Aid (Ireland) in delivering training to enhance the awareness and confidence of personnel in the area of mental health and wellbeing. The PSS team is also concerned with how we manage critical incidents, both in terms of preparing our personnel to respond, and in helping people deal with the aftermath of a critical incident, either at home or overseas. These are just some of the things that PSS do to support military personnel. Over the next few issues of CONNECT Magazine we will explore some of the aspects of the work of PSS throughout the Defence Forces. We will hear from one of our social workers and from one of our BPSSOs. We will look at personal finances and at mental health and wellbeing, and at how the PSS provides one-on-one confidential support as well as group training and information sharing. We will check in with our BPSSO deployed currently to UNIFIL to examine some of the issues associated with deployment and how we help our personnel and their families to deal with them. Please note that PSS services are delivered to military personnel and their families confidentially! HEADSPACE & TIMING HEADSPACE & TIMING By Lt Col John Martin, OIC DF PSS

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