Sailors assigned to guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea (CG-58) prepare to depart Manama, Bahrain, through a sea and anchor detail on March 21, 2021. US Navy photo
U.S. Naval Forces Central Command held a two-day mental well being stand down in Bahrain, the Navy announced Thursday.
For the duration of the stand down, which will kick off a series of events held by the Navy on mental well being, sailors and their households visited information and facts booths and attended presentations, according to a Navy news release.
The concentrate of the stand down was to teach sailors and military households to far better recognize mental well being issues though also assisting them to have conversations about mental well being, Capt. Hamish Kirkland, chief of employees for U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, mentioned in the release.
Naval Forces Central Command is at present participating in a pilot plan all through 5th Fleet to expand mental well being solutions, like a stroll-in clinic on the Bahrain naval station. The two-year pilot also introduces an intensive outpatient plan.
Ahead of the plan, sailors and households could acquire a week of inpatient therapy prior to needing to go back to the United States, according to the release. The pilot so far has decreased the quantity of persons who would will need to go back to the U.S. for solutions by 40 %.
The release does not make it clear when the pilot started.
The standdown comes just after the Navy released its Mental Wellness Playbook, which came shortly just after the Division of Defense released its final results from an independent assessment committee on suicide in the military.
The playbook offers leadership guidance on how to speak about mental well being with sailors beneath their command, USNI News reported.