FORT SILL, Okla. (Dec. 14, 2015) -- Fort Sill conducted a Soldier Readiness Campaign development session Dec. 2, to increase communication between command teams and readiness support services that provide commanders a greater snapshot of potential readiness and other risk factors of their Soldiers.
Reynolds Army Community Hospital (RACH) hosted the Leader Professional Development session in the Reimer Conference Center for all brigade, battalion, and battery level command teams on the installation.
The session educated all levels of command on recently introduced and upcoming initiatives in behavioral health, pharmaceutical practices, and readiness reporting to improve overall Soldier readiness.
"Recent incidences on Fort Sill have identified certain gaps that exist between medical professionals and command teams," said Lt. Col. John Urciuoli, RACH deputy commanding officer. "Major General (John) Rossi wanted to take the time for the enablers to speak to all command teams and allow them the opportunity to provide feedback and address any concerns that they may have."
Rossi, Fires Center of Excellence and Fort Sill commanding general, opened the session highlighting the importance of communication and including the chain of command in every Soldier's circle of family, friends, and support professionals.
"Our objective here is to increase touch points and to increase interaction with each other," Rossi said.
Communication about a Soldier's medical readiness is a concern, Urciuoli said.
"One of the issues we are combating is the flow of communication between the Soldier's medical readiness providers and the command teams," he said. "We found that commanders were often unaware of the potential risk factors that could arise due to certain medications, or specific profiles prohibiting the use of weapons or alcohol that may be prescribed or issued by our providers."
During the last three months, RACH officials have created programs that have greatly improved the communication flow between its organizations which will ultimately improve Soldier readiness, Urciuoli said.
One such program is the embedding of behavioral health teams within all units on post.
"We work for the command," said Terry Martinez, social worker and the supervisor for Behavioral Health Team B which is embedded with the 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade. "In the past Soldiers from the same unit would see different behavioral health providers in different locations, which prevented us from detecting trends within a particular unit."
The embedded behavioral health professional's proximity and involvement with Soldiers and commanders has increased their effectiveness in treating behavioral health issues and concerns sooner than later, without compromising the Soldier's personal health information, Martinez said.
"We have been able to remove communication barriers that allow us to optimize Soldier behavioral health readiness," he said.
Martinez also highlighted one of the greatest advantages they have which is the full support and total buy-in from the FCoE commanding general and his command team, which has allowed behavioral health workers unprecedented access to the brigade and battalion command teams.
Additionally, all levels of command will have greater access to specific tools that will help in identifying Soldiers who are at risk for becoming medically not available.
A live demonstration of the Medical Readiness Assessment Tool, or MRAT, was performed during the development session.
The tool, which is currently available to medical readiness personnel and will be available to unit leaders within the next six months, will identify Soldiers who are likely to be placed on a deployment limiting profile within the next 12 months.
"This allows the command enough time to medically intervene and maintain deployment readiness," said Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Sims, RACH senior clinical noncommissioned officer, who demonstrated the assessment tool.
Throughout the two-hour session, commanders had the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback on the initiatives that have been in place.
In his closing comments, Rossi reiterated the discussions that took place do not apply to just medical readiness, but have implication across the entire spectrum of Soldier readiness.
"As commanders we often find that many problems a Soldier may be facing do not come to the chain of command," said Rossi, "What may be a minor risk factor to a medical provider or behavioral health professional may translate to a high risk factor for the commander due to facts and situations the provider may not be aware of. The tools we now have in place will enable us to optimize readiness of the force, and if needed intervene much sooner that previously possible."
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