More Defence news: 13 August - 19 August 2007
| Forces combine to save policeman's life in Timor | Change of command for Australian forces in Middle East | Defence Priorities 2007-08 | ADF a step ahead in mental health | |
International Forces combine with UN Police to save local policeman's life in Timor
After being given immediate first aid by ISF soldiers shortly after the incident, United Nations Police officers evacuated the PNTL officer from Uatolari to Viqueque by road where ISF troops had secured a landing zone for an ISF helicopter to land with a specialist aero-medical evacuation team on board. The PNTL officer was stabilised by the aero-medical evacuation team and then airlifted to Dili, were he underwent an immediate life-saving operation at an ISF medical facility. He is now in a stable condition. The Commander of the ISF, Brigadier John Hutcheson, said the life-saving operation was an example of the close working relationship between the ISF, United Nations Police and East Timorese security forces to assist a colleague in a time of need. “The ISF and the United Nations Police have worked hard over the past 16 months to develop strong links and working relationships to enable us to work effectively together in our mission to help all people of Timor Leste by providing a stable and secure environment,” Brigadier Hutcheson said. “This operation on Monday night, in support of one of our PNTL colleagues in a time of great need, underlines the strength of this relationship. “I commend the efforts of my soldiers and the United Nations Police officers involved for their quick and accurate decision making and action which has ultimately saved the life of the PNTL officer,” Brigadier Hutcheson said. The ISF is in Timor Leste at the request of the Government of Timor Leste to assist the United Nations Police in providing a secure and stable environment for all Timorese. The ISF has no details about the nature of the incident which led to the PNTL officer’s injury. More: Operation Astute website |
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| Change of command for Australian forces in Middle East 18 June 2007 - In a handover ceremony held at the Australian Headquarters, Joint Task Force 633 (HQJTF633) in Baghdad, Major General (MAJGEN) Mark Evans AO, DSC, assumed command of the Australian forces in the Middle East from Brigadier (BRIG) Gerard Fogarty. MAJGEN Evans praised the outgoing Commander, BRIG Fogarty, for the excellent job he has done in making sure he gained a thorough understanding of the diversity and complexity of the Australian forces deployed in the Middle East Area of Operations (MEAO). “Brigadier Fogarty has done a great job in a short time providing the necessary leadership to the Joint Task Force,” said MAJGEN Evans. On his appointment as the National Commander of the Joint Task Force, MAJGEN Evans said, “It is a great privilege to be asked to do the job”. During a handover tour of the MEAO, MAJGEN Evans commented on the remarkable job being done by the Australian forces. He said the bedding-in of the increased numbers in Afghanistan and ensuring all elements receive the required logistics support, are two of his main challenges on assuming command. BRIG Fogarty now assumes the position of Deputy Commander of Australian forces in Iraq and BRIG Jim Simpson has been appointed the Deputy Commander of Australian forces in Afghanistan. The enhanced command and control arrangements for Australian forces in the MEAO will enable a wider, more balanced and flexible approach for the continuing ADF operations. More: Read media release |
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| Defence Priorities 2007-08 At the recent Senior Leadership Group (SLG) meeting, held at Parliament House in Canberra on 21 May 2007, the new Defence Priorities 2007-08 was launched. The document articulates the Secretary and Chief of the Defence Force's joint vision for Defence: "A professional organisation working across government to deliver effective military capability". The priorities themselves are structured around six themes:
We are committed to:
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| ADF a step ahead in mental health The Australian Defence Force’s commitment to maintaining the physical and mental wellbeing of the men and women in uniform remains the top priority for Head of Defence Health Services Air Vice Marshal Tony Austin. AVM Austin gave a briefing to media organisations last week and following is an extract of that briefing: "What we're trying to do is to get mental health up there in front of people so that they feel more comfortable to talk about it, they have better understanding of the issues and therefore they can work together synergistically to make sure that they maintain that mental health fitness that we seek. "The first thing we do is conduct a threat analysis. What we’re looking at is the occupational, operational and environmental threats that our people may be exposed to. "We also provide our people with an Operational Deployment Guide, which is quite a comprehensive document that outlines the stressors that they may be exposed to on deployment and that their families may be exposed to. In fact, we actively encourage our people to take that pamphlet home and talk about it with their families so that there is a mutual understanding. "Once our people actually deploy on operations, we have various options available to us. If it's a particularly high threat operation where we feel that mental health issues may be prominent, then we will in fact deploy psychology support embedded into the units. Otherwise, we can respond if there has been an adverse event or so-called critical event or critical incident, by sending flyaway teams who can come into the unit and provide the immediate support to the people there. "I would like to point out that the strategies that we use in our critical incident management are actually world-leading in this area. We have developed these in consultation with the Australian Centre for Post Traumatic Mental Health and they're now being embraced across Australia in the civilian sector, not just in the military sector. "Once our people are about to return to Australia, we put them through a mandatory psychological screening process, the Return to Australia Psychological Screen, which involves using various survey tools to identify what risks they've been exposed to or threats, but also to see how they're coping. And we also conduct a face-to-face interview in private with them so that we better understand if there are any problems or if there is a likelihood of problems developing. "Once they actually return to Australia, there is a further psychological screen conducted at between three and six months after return that again allows us to pick up on those problems that may have developed after returning to Australia and were not immediately obvious before they left the area of operations. "We're mindful of the difficulties that some people may have in readjusting back to home life here in Australia and we have a formal program called the Coming Home Readjustment Program to assist those people reintegrating back into their workplace and into their families. "To support them in doing that, we also provide multidisciplinary regional mental health support teams; we have some 22 of those teams spread around Australia. "To further assist people, mindful of the fact that some people are loathe to conduct a face-to-face interview with someone and share their experiences, we provide an all hours support line, which is a telephone 1800 number which is manned by highly trained health professionals who can provide, if need be, anonymous advice to people and guidance if they feel that that is the best way for them to receive care. "We also have access to a range of specialist providers, such as psychiatrists, who have extensive experience in dealing with ADF people and with veterans and all members of the ADF have access to the Veterans and Veterans Families Counselling Service if they feel that that better meets their needs. "To support our people in recognising the risk factors and being able to intervene early, we have an Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training program that we have acquired from a commercial provider who has enormous experience and a very good track record in this area. "We also have an initiative called Keep Your Mate Safe and that's encouraging our people to actually, if they see something in one of their mates that they don't understand or is a little bit out of character, to actually have the confidence to turn around and challenge that person and say ‘why, what's going on, tell me about it, share it with me,’ so that they can make appropriate referrals. "Finally, we have also developed a deployed Health Surveillance Program which is being developed in conjunction with the Centre for Military and Veterans Health in Brisbane and this is a very rigorous scientific approach to monitoring the health and wellbeing of our people who have deployed on operations so that we can detect any trends that may be occurring there and put in place appropriate interventions." |
