FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- Over the past year, the 92nd Operational Medical Readiness Squadron Mental Health flight has added several new programs to better serve Team Fairchild.
The flight continues to provide counseling services and now offers group therapy, telemedicine and unit embedding.
“Over the last year and a half, we’ve seen a huge increase in people wanting our services, but we can’t always meet that need and don’t want to leave people without care," said Capt. Connor Rose, 92nd Operational Medical Readiness Squadron Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment program element chief. "We’ve really been trying to get creative as a clinic in how we can meet the needs of the base and still hold our high standards of care.”
Therapy groups have been implemented to help improve access to the base community. The newest group, the Moving Forward Group, is in an open format, allowing new people to join at any time.
"The Moving Forward Group is really just to help people with emotional concerns, whether its anxiety, depression, or anger, and day-to-day stresses, such as exercise goals or even work issues,” said Senior Airman Jonathan Olivia, 92nd OMRS Mental Health flight technician.
The implementation of group therapy and telemedicine allows for Airmen with similar concerns to work through them in a different manner, accommodating time concerns and the desire for different approaches to care. Telemedicine allows for a personalized experience that could fit better for people who want to engage with mental health, but can’t make certain hours due to working swing shifts or night shifts.
"We have a new initiative with telehealth to improve access to mental health care here on base,” Rose said. “Airmen will come in and do a triage with one of our technicians and if they don’t have any acute safety concerns and are open to telemedicine, then we will set them up with a referral.”
Time is a concern for many when making appointments and some Airmen may still find it difficult to reach out to the clinic for help. Providers bringing the care to the Airmen is meant to encourage those in need to seek out mental health services and bridge that line of communication.
“Getting Airmen to not be dependent on us, but independent of us is our hope,” said Oliva. “We just want to serve the base the best that we can and all these initiatives are really helpful to that goal.”
For more information on the services available at mental health, call (509)247-2731 between the hours of 7:30 am and 4:30 pm.