Navy Personnel Readiness: Corry Station Embraces and Participates in SafeTALK

PENSACOLA, Fla.- Servicemembers onboard Naval Air Station Pensacola Corry Station, Pensacola, Florida, are participating in a course, facilitated by the base chapel, that teaches the participants to watch for, and prevent or aid people with suicidal tendencies or ideations. It also helps them monitor their own mental health as well.

The program is called safeTALK. It is a training program that teaches participants to recognize and engage persons who might be having thoughts of suicide and to connect them with community resources trained in suicide intervention. SafeTALK stresses safety while challenging taboos that inhibit open talk about suicide. The ‘safe’ stands for ‘suicide alertness for everyone’, while the ‘TALK’stands for the practice actions that one does to help those with thoughts of suicide: Tell, Ask, Listen, and KeepSafe. These skills are important to have for servicemembers.

“Events like safeTALK are important because they help create a suicide safer community with everyone working together to make that possible,” said Cmdr. John Ismach-Eastman, one of the Corry Station chaplains. “The caregivers are usually pretty limited in number. We only have so many chaplains, fleet and family members and so on, but when we utilize peers who know how to identify or recognize suicidal ideation or behavior, they can help intervene to prevent that or get them the help they need.”

SafeTALK is available to every servicemember of every branch, and is encouraged to fight the stigma of servicemembers seeking help and giving help to their peers.

“The stigma of seeking help is actually one of the topics we go over in the course,” said Religious Program Specialist 3rd Class Tyler Freda, a Sailor who has conducted the safeTALK course. “I would encourage people to avoid believing the stigma, no one has ever got in trouble for seeking help, the mission is to get them better and back in the fight as soon as possible. This program aims to add another resource to get them that help, the member taking the course. It makes it easier, it can be a hard and awkward situation, but with anything practice is key and it could save a life.”

“Along with combatting stigmas, the course also shows servicemembers that openly talk about suicide or suicidal ideologies is something that is more common than they think, and can be much more helpful than servicemembers may believe,” added Ismach-Eastman.

Removing the stigmas and understanding that suicide is a tough subject to discuss. All of Corry Station’s leadership and staff want people to be able to feel comfortable expressing when they are dealing with something, struggling with a tough situation or when they feel like all the odds are against them. They strive to encourage that person, lift them up and help them past the issue to produce a stronger, more capable information warfare warrior who will be able to cope and handle an adverse situation in the future.

“Openly talking about suicides helps because it shows folks that it is more common than folks think,” said Lt. James Lanford, another Corry Station chaplain. “Openly talking about suicide allows for the myths to be debunked and encourages people and empowers people to seek resources because there are people who genuinely want to help.”

Once servicemembers have taken the safeTALK course, the hope is that they will be prepared to see and recognize when a peer needs help and either give aid or prevent further signs by getting them the help they need. Doing this helps create the suicide safer community and drives down the suicide rate in the military. It has been proven to help at other commands and will do the same for the servicemembers of Corry Station, offered Freda.

“At my last command, Marines were directly affected by SafeTALK that me and my chaplain there had taught,” said Freda. “Morale was boosted and the care of the unit went up because they were more understanding and aware. Never be afraid to ask and be direct, you could save a life. There is no harm in asking, it only shows you care.”

Ismach-Eastman also shared he encourages and hopes to see more servicemembers come take the course. It not only helps the mental health, but the spiritual and emotional health as well.

“The course has more than proven to be successful,” said Ismach-Eastman. “You never know what you’re missing, in this case, to be exposed to what many believe to be the best suicide prevention material currently available to our military community.”

With four schoolhouse commands, a detachment, and training sites throughout the United States and Japan, CIWT trains over 22,000 students every year, delivering trained information warfare professionals to the Navy and joint services. CIWT also offers more than 200 courses for cryptologic technicians, intelligence specialists, information systems technicians, electronics technicians, and officers in the information warfare community.

For more news from the Center for Information Warfare Training domain, visit https://www.netc.navy.mil/CIWT, www.facebook.com/NavyCIWT, or www.twitter.com/NavyCIWT.