A HEALTH welfare centre for US sailors in Bahrain has been expanded to offer additional services and will have a team of chaplains and counsellors.
The revamped Waterfront Resiliency Centre was inaugurated at the Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet in Juffair and will help US Navy personnel deployed in the kingdom.
Workshops on mental health and suicide awareness and marriage counselling will be among the services and programmes offered.
The GDN reported in May that the US Navy in Bahrain had expanded its mental healthcare programme for its personnel and their family members who can now avail local treatment rather than flying out to the US.
Earlier, service and family members would receive about a week of inpatient mental healthcare in theatre while awaiting return to the US; intensive outpatient care was not available.
The revamped facility previously served only as a meeting point between military personnel and their chaplains.
“The facility now offers a broader range of support for service members including military family life counselling; workshops on suicide awareness, strengthening marriage, and warrior toughness,” said the Fifth Fleet yesterday.
Meanwhile, Fifth Fleet spokesperson Fifth Commander Timothy Hawkins told the GDN yesterday that the new centre will help “our personnel better handle stress”.
“The facility will enable sailors to meet a chaplain or counsellor and attend weekly classes or workshops on marriage, mental health, or helping a shipmate,” stated Commander Hawkins.
“These are important resources for helping our service members succeed at work and thrive at home.”
US Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) deputy commander Rear Admiral Sean Bailey yesterday urged all Navy personnel in Bahrain to confront any stigma associated with seeking help.
“Lead by speaking up and advocating for programmes and services the centre will offer,” he said.
“When we are able to connect with one another, we can navigate the challenges in our lives and we are better positioned to cope, recover and continue giving our personal best.
“Equipping service members with the tools and skills to handle pressure will reduce distractions and enable them to be more mission-focused.”
A two-year pilot programme was launched by Bahrain-based NAVCENT in February to expand mental health services and programmes, and has now been revised to provide additional services to personnel and their families stationed in Bahrain.
US military commands in Bahrain also published a “Mental Health Roadmap” for sailors and their families.
It lists important hotlines, medical departments to seek assistance from, to even speaking to chaplains to discuss their problems.
The change in policy regarding mental health follows a spate of suicides.
At least seven sailors assigned to aircraft-carrier USS George Washington have committed suicide, four last year and three in 2019 and 2020.
Media reports have cited the tough living and working conditions on the carrier as the cause.
This raised the question of mental health of US Navy personnel stationed at different bases.
In Bahrain last year, a US citizen was deported and sent back to the US for the alleged murder of his mother, a US Navy government civilian employee assigned to Naval Support Activity (NSA), Bahrain.
Giovonni Pope, age 27, was charged with murder by way of criminal complaint in the District of Maryland.
According to the complaint, on January 31, Pope stabbed his mother Erica, repeatedly, causing her death at their home in Amwaj Islands.
In July last year the GDN reported that Corporal Brandon Alvarez, age 22, was found dead on June 6 in a ‘non-combat related incident’, while serving with the US Marines in Bahrain.
The US Navy’s highest-ranking officer in Bahrain, Vice Admiral Scott Stearney, age 58, was found dead at his home in Janabiya in December 2018.
An inquiry confirmed suicide as the cause of death.
Two more US sailors assigned to the US Fifth Fleet died in the same month following which the US Navy launched a series of measures to tackle suicides.
It included training, counselling and positioning of mental health professionals with operational units, and a suicide prevention hotline.
According to the US Defence Department’s latest quarterly report (Q4 2021) the number of suicides among military service members reached 132.
This included 85 deaths in the Active Component, 24 in the Reserve and 23 in the National Guard.
Bahrain is home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet and its estimated 8,000 military members and their dependants.
sandy@gdnmedia.bh
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