Page 28 - The Gazette Autumn 2023

28 The Gazette QARANC Association
‘Mental illness is the silent pandemic of any disaster’
Captain Richard Ainsworth-Masiello, a mental health nurse, reports back on his deployment to assist in the Turkey earthquake relief effort earlier this year.
In early February 2023, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit southern/central Turkey and Northern/western Syria, causing significant damage to infrastructure and loss of life.
16 Medical Regiment was deployed alongside the Royal Air Force tactical medical wing and the NGO (non-governmental organisation) UK Med, to establish a medical facility in Gaziantep, Turkey. Its role was to begin treating the local population immediately, and as the aligned mental health nurse, I joined them on this operation, named Greenlighter.
Responding to a natural disaster in this capacity and alongside an NGO was a first for the UK military, meaning the expectations of what we would encounter were unknown. Our brief highlighted the chance of being involved in providing critical care in an intensive and high-stress environment.
My role would be to promote mental resilience to the unit and decide on whether to deliver low- level mental healthcare or medically evacuate the individual back to the UK for further assessment and treatment.
Normally working out of the Department for Community Mental Health (DCMH) in Colchester, I already had a solid working relationship with some individuals within 16 Medical Regiment. Even then, it is still an initial barrier to find your footing when
All members performed amazingly and used the time to get to know each other and start to bond.
supporting another unit. Especially when your role is to support the mental health needs of the people on the ground.
After a flight from Brize Norton, we arrived in Gaziantep Airport in the early hours of the morning. My immediate impression was the reception we received from the local population. Constantly, local people would come up to us and give thanks for travelling to support them. They provided food and drink, which at 3am in the morning when you’re crammed on a coach and scrawling down Turkish phrases, is highly appreciated to say the least. It was humbling to see the hospitality provided by people who had lost homes and loved ones so recently.
After arriving at our base (a farmland opposite the main hospital) and setting up bashas for the night along a fence line, we awoke to begin setting up the field hospital. Getting involved allowed me to start making myself known to the team.
Mental health difficulties naturally make people isolate and be reluctant to open-up. Although I was there with the team, nobody in the unit would think