Deployment diary set to make life easier

Volume 48, No. 3, March 9, 2006

LT Caroline Harrop from Army’s 1 Psych Unit and SQNLDR Lee de Winton, XO 381ECSS RAAF Base Williamtown, look through the new deployment guide.

Photo by Phil Barling

A NEW ADF Operational Deployment Diary has been produced to provide a greater level of support to deploying members and their families.

BRIG Mick Kehoe launched the diary at Randwick Barracks on February 23. The first copies were issued to members undertaking the Deployed Forces Support Unit (DFSU) Force Preparation for Operation Azure in Sudan.

“The deployment diary is a wonderful initiative, with great potential. It’s usefulness is only limited by your willingness to use it,” BRIG Kehoe said.

The Operational Deployment Diary is a Defence Health Services and 1 Psych Unit initiative, funded by the Defence Peoples’ Committee.

It aims to provide information, management strategies and resources to deploying members and their families, assisting them to effectively readjust to operational service, separation, stress and, finally, the return home of members.

The diary will be given to all members during Force Preparation Courses conducted by DFSU. It will allow members to record notes, contacts, thoughts or any information pertinent to their operational experience.

Additionally, the deployment guide section provides members and their families with information regarding the various psychological phases of deployments and the effects these phases might have.

It covers tips specifically for single members, for members with partners and for those with children, as well as highlighting issues of note potentially experienced by all. Included is helpful information and further resources for deployed members’ families, assisting people to manage difficult situations as they arise.

CAPT Laura Sinclair, the Senior Project Officer responsible for the redevelopment of the diary, said its key benefit was that it “assists members and their loved ones in adjusting to the deployment experience and provides them with support, resources and realistic expectations”.

The diary will soon include a Homecoming Guide covering reintegration issues and information to assist members and their loved ones readjust to life together back in Australia.

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