Wednesday, Jan. 09, 2013
Resilience Modules promote ‘total fitness’
Soldiers, Army civilians and Family members looking to increase their resilience have a new tool available to them. Known as Comprehensive Resilience Modules, these short, online sessions focus on developing individual resilience skills in four main categories: emotional, Family, social and spiritual.
The modules support Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness, “an enduring effort committed to developing and sustaining a new Army culture of total fitness, increased psychological health and resilience in order to enhance the performance of the entire Army community,” said Sam Rhodes, Fort Benning’s CSF2 Program manager.
The Armywide CSF2 Program equips individuals with the resources needed to thrive in the face of adversity, he said. CRMs are another way to enhance CSF2 precepts.
Lasting from 15 to 20 minutes, the modules are available upon completion of the Global Assessment Tool, an online questionnaire designed to gauge the psychosocial well-being of Soldiers of all ranks and experience levels.
“Once the GAT is completed, the database will analyze the response and recommend which of the 42 CRMs the individual should take to improve in the five dimensions of CSF2: spiritual, physical, emotional, Family and social,” Rhodes said. “Once they receive the recommendation, it’s up to them if they complete it or not. The completion of these CRMs will do remarkable work toward maximizing their resilience and enhancing their performance, both for the Army and their personal life.”
Example modules and their corresponding categories include the following:
1. Emotional: Put It In Perspective, What Do Emotions Do?, What Good Are Negative Emotions?, What Good Are Positive Emotions?, What is an Emotion?
2. Social: Active Constructive Responding, Building Resilient Teams, Team Diversity and Resilience, The Dynamics of Socially Resilient Teams, The Importance of Team Chemistry
3. Family: Effective Communication, Hostile Interactions Following Arrival Home, Stranger In My Home, Trust and Insecurity, Who’s in Charge?
4. Spiritual: Hunt The Good Stuff, Making Meaning, Meditation, Rituals, Spiritual Support Six of the modules include video clips featuring 11th Engineer Battalion Soldiers. Filmed last summer at Tactical Training Base Voyager, the scenes feature daily life at a forward operating base being suddenly interrupted with an explosion. Voice-overs of the Soldiers’ thoughts and impressions play during the scenes.
Rhodes said those who take the time to finish the modules will be rewarded with an increased understanding of the skills needed to succeed in life — both during times of conflict and of peace.
“I cannot overemphasize how important this issue is to me,” he said. “Every life lost to suicide is a tragedy to our Families, to our units and to our Army. We are a resilient Army, and we are committed to building our individual and collective strength — physically, emotionally, socially, spiritually and within our Families. You must continue to refine and apply the resilience skills you learn.”
The modules are free. Army civilians and Soldiers will need their Army Knowledge Online username and password to access the CRMs.
