Page 13 - Mind, Body and Spirit 2016/17

Third Strike and You are OUT Policy, it’s no laughing matter!
Having left Army HQ and a two and half year
thrashing in DTrg only in mid-14 imagine my delight to
learn that Andover was my new post. I arrived back
in Army HQ (for the third time in 7 years) wondering
what I could have done in a former life to deserve
such punishment, I wasn’t to be disappointed. The
HQ was in ux as we were mid Army Command
Review (ACR) the result of which moved the health
branch over to the other side from Ramillies Building
(and the great street café) to Blenheim where all the
serious work gets done and the grown-ups live. At
this point I am reminded of how that makes us feel
and relate it to a song in Les Miserables, Red the Colour of Desire, Black the colour of Despair or in this case Ramillies the Colour of Desire, Blenheim the Colour of Despair!. Anyhow, we were moving away from DPS(A) and Brigadier John Donnelly the (outgoing Commandant) into a newly formed Senior Health Advisor (Army) (SHA(A)) department with the incoming Commandant Brigadier Paul Cain.
During that process we had to hand over our SO2 post responsible for Health Promotion (all the fun stuff) to HQ Home Command and into the delivery space, leaving us with all the Policy (it’s as much fun as it sounds!). The new incumbent Maj Tracey Doree is doing a grand job re-invigorating that side of the house and whilst it will never work quite as well as having our own asset embedded within the branch we are nding out appropriate ways of doing business. The new Army Health website has a plethora of information on and is rapidly becoming an essential resource tool. Use it!
As part of the ACR the SHA area now falls under DPers and we were immediately thrown into the weird world of ‘Projects’ and the strange new language and processes that accompanies it. Of course we were given no training in this new process and had to learn ‘on the job’. Nearly a year later and we are still learning!
Anyhow we currently have 3 major projects within my area which will have an effect on the health and wellbeing of Soldiers for several years to come, brie y described as follows:
Listen to Sense 2. At the time of writing this project is nearing completion. It has been a hearing conservation project aimed at improving compliance with policy and with reducing Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL). There is a revised policy (AGAI 77), a number of resources (Commanders/Individual Guides/posters) and a new lm available as part of MATT 6 healthy living.
Unit Alcohol Advisors (UAA). The UAA project aims to raise awareness of alcohol misuse and will plant one or two points of contact within each unit that have an elevated level of knowledge and can champion sensible drinking. Additionally, they will train up Alcohol Brief Intervention Practitioners who will be embedded within all sub-units who on a peer to peer basis (like TRiM) will be able to offer advice and support to their colleagues on an opportune basis.
OPSMART (Optimising Human Performance through Self- Management and Resilience Training) This project aims to support the mental wellbeing and resilience of our people by improving mental health awareness and literacy across all ranks, improving mental tness (to enhance wellbeing and performance), reducing stigma and barriers to care and by supporting those in management and leadership roles to identify and deal with issues at the earliest opportunity.
As mentioned at the top of this article this is my third time in Army HQ and for me has been a ‘bridge too far’, given my former life that phrase is quite apt. Anyhow this is my third strike and I am OUT! (Well at least I will be this time next year, bring on the next adventure, but it will not be writing policy that’s for sure!).
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SENIOR HEALTH ADVISOR (ARMY) – HEALTH & WELLBEING BRANCH
SO1 Health & Wellbeing
Lt Col (MAA) Bob Taylor RAPTC
ARMY HEADQUARTERS – ARMY TRAINING BRANCH – PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
Lt Col (MAA) Mark Lewis SO1 Training Assurance
Returning for a second stint at Army HQ, Andover, having previously helped to steer the ATG(A) ship as Group Training Of cer, I
was delighted to take over from Lt Col (MAA) Sheff
Appleby in Nov 16 as SO1 Training Assurance. Sheff
did more than his fair share of time working in the 4*
policy space having completed back to back tours as
SO2 AT/ Sport and SO1 PD; a signi cant endurance
feat in itself and deserving of a good rest. We all wish
him the very best of luck in retirement and note that
he is available for well-paid plumbing work. Some
of you may notice the change of job titles from SO1
Physical Development to SO1 Training Assurance;
this resulted directly from the Army Command Review
driven by the imperative to rationalise outputs across
not only the Army Training Branch but the entire Army HQ and grow the training assurance capability within the 4* area. Our
handover was therefore brief as my job speci cation makes no mention of PD and focuses on individual and collective training assurance delivered Army wide. However, given the frenetic and constantly adjusting nature of work at AHQ, after only 2 months in post I was handed back oversight of PD policy and responsibility for the SO1 PD assurance, Sulle Alhaji and SO2s PD, Ian Phillips and Steve Collinson; I now nd myself covering both the PD and broader training assurance portfolios and very thankful that I have such high quality, experienced and dedicated PD staff of cers. They have each provided details on what has been happening within their particular area of responsibility so I won’t ‘eat their sandwiches’ here.
More recently we have also seen the departure of Lt Col Sulle Alhaji who came to the end of his FTRS contract and managed