Alaska corrections staff learn resilience with JBER trainers

Four members from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson Resilience Program provided training for the Alaska Department of Corrections during their annual Health and Rehabilitation Service Leadership Conference in Anchorage Sept. 13.

This is the first time the Resilience Program trainers are providing outreach to the Department of Corrections and hopefully will pave the way for a longer range of resilience training with the DoC.

“One of the members from the DoC reached out to our office in July,” said Air Force Master Sgt. Steven Beck, JBER Resilience Program Manager. “They were asking if we can provide resilience training for their employees.”

In their initial meeting in August, Beck provided information and lesson materials offered to the service member. Out of the 14 main concepts focusing on the Comprehensive Airman Fitness, the Department of Corrections wants to focus on interpersonal problem-solving.

“Working in a stressful environment and high turnovers are [issues that needed to be resolved],” Beck said. “So we are going to focus on the managerial side of implementing resiliency skills at their work center.”

Beck hopes DoC employees will apply what they learned.

“A lot of these concepts of resiliency take 21 days to make or break a habit,” Beck said. “If you do it for 21 days, you usually don’t have to think about it. You will feel a difference in your life, and that is what we are hoping for here.”

During the one and half hours of resiliency training, the DoC personnel were very appreciative and grateful the JBER Resiliency Program trainers were here to provide information for the employees.

“The resiliency training is what we need,” said Laura Brooks, Alaska Department of Corrections Health and Rehabilitation Services deputy director. “They work in a stressful job — working with the prison population — medical staff with long hours is a stressful job for them, and I think it was well focused on what our needs are right now.”

Roughly 50 professionals ranging from nurse managers, lead mental health clinicians, health practitioners, and physicians were in attendance.

“This is the first step for us,” Brooks added. “It’s a resource that we haven’t had before so it’s a brand new start for us and this training was spot on.”

After the training, the JBER Resilience Program trainers received a warm applause from the DoC for providing an extra tool for them to apply what they have learned at their work center and also at home. Eventually, Beck hopes to continue this new relationship with the DoC and eventually visit other locations.