Wolf Pack's TSR; there when needed

  • Published
  • By 8th Fighter Wing
  • Public Affairs
KUNSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea --  A plane goes down, a tsunami makes landfall, a building catches fire, or a car crashes with multiple vehicles and people, all severely injured. These events happen without warning, and often stretch our ability to cope with everything around us. Events like this are beyond the scope of normal occurrences and we are often unprepared emotionally to deal with them. How do first responders and family members affected by these events cope with these types of incidents? The Wolf Pack's Traumatic Stress Response Team has the answers. 

According to Staff Sgt. Liza Kazee, 8th Medical Operations Squadron noncommissioned officer in charge of psychological services, the use of the traumatic stress response team helps cut down on the number of personnel diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and other long term problems. 

This is done by allowing individuals to process their feelings early in the event and learn how to deal with the reactions they may be having. The affected individuals are trained to normalize the reactions to the traumatic event and to recognize when they or a buddy are in need of more intensive services. 

"The TSR team is a multi disciplinary team that works with individuals involved in traumatic incidents to help them understand their reactions to those events," said Sergeant Kazee. "Most importantly, TSR helps prevent long-term psychological problems associated with these events." 

The team offers pre-exposure preparation training, grief counseling and after incident counseling. 

Pre-exposure preparation training is available to units considered to be high risk. These include:  fire fighters, security forces, medical personnel, search and recovery. 

"The ability to function during and after an event as a first responder is the most important thing and this training assists in making that possible," said Sergeant Kazee.  

Grief counseling is offered on a one-on-one basis and is available for anyone involved in an incident or directly affected by the incident. After incident counseling is offered as close to the scene as possible for those first responders and individuals involved in the event. Any individual seen under the traumatic stress response umbrella is allowed up to four undocumented sessions with a team member. 

"The TSR team prepares Airmen with pre-exposure preparation training." Capt. Connie Burnett, 8th Medical Operations Squadron chief of social work services. "Then when an incident does happen we are there to provide support as well." 

To access the traumatic stress response team for training, please contact the Mental Health Clinic at 782-4841. During real-world events, the team can be accessed through the Command Post.