An Cosantóir

40 HEADSPACE & TIMING Taking care of each other at Christmas time (and all the time) Christmas Already! I am sure I am not the only one who is mildly surprised to see the Christmas Decorations going up on the streets of our cities and our towns! After all it seems like only yesterday that we were looking forward to the summer, and yet here we are, with some people are already putting up the Christmas tree! And who can blame them! The uncertainty of COVID 19 has dragged along with us all year and we are tired of it – For some of us it has significantly affected our family incomes – For others it has disrupted all kinds of plans, especially anything involving travel. And then of course for many of us it has been a cause of real concern about our health, and the health of the people that we care about. It's a good time for us all to remind each other of the need to take care of our mental health. There are a lot of things that we can do. The first is to make sure that we are in good physical condition – Controlling our diet and our alcohol intake as well as giving up smoking all provide a good basis for good mental health. You should also make sure that you take care of any health worries that you might have in good time – Don't put things off – Taking action early reduces your worries and in most cases helps you to a better outcome. On the financial side, now is a good time to make sure that we have planned for Christmas. It is a really great idea to have a realistic and workable budget in place before the season really kicks off – Identifying available resources and having a list of priorities is always a good idea to ensure that we don't lose control of our finances – If you would like to know more please contact your local PSS team. A quick word about our colleagues deployed overseas. Christmas can be particularly difficult when a loved one is away and sometimes the support of colleagues can be really appreciated. If you have friends who are deployed at this time of the year be sure to check in with them – even a simple WhatsApp message to people who are away, or to their families left behind can mean a lot! Suicide Awareness and Prevention Suicide is an issue that we sometimes like to avoid, and that is understandable. At the same time it affects almost all of us in some way or another during our lifetimes. We know now that being open about suicide, and not afraid to talk about it, can help reduce the risk and make it more likely that vulnerable people will get the help they need in time. The PSS works closely with the National Office for Suicide Prevention to minimise the risk of suicide to our personnel and their families. This gives us access to really high quality suicide awareness and prevention training and I would like to briefly describe some of them. START is a ninety minute online interactive training programme which you can access and complete in the privacy and comfort of your own home. It is designed to give you the skills, knowledge and the confidence that you need to keep others safe from the risk of suicide. You can complete the training all in one go, or you can do it in stages, depending on what suits you best. You can register to do START free of charge through your local PSS team – Just supply a civilian email address and your first and second name and we will do By Lt Col John Martin, PSS Photo's by A/M Sam Gibney, Pte Derek Feehan & Mark Pollock Not everything is black and white, people may be struggling even though they put on a brave and strong face You may think it but you're never struggling alone, there are always others who have gone through what you are going through, don't be afraid to reach out for help HEADSPACE & TIMING

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