Can You Talk About PTSD?
If you can, you can help save lives.
If you or a relative or friend have experienced PTSD,
Would you feel comfortable talking about your experience with PTSD?
Can you work in a team and relate well to people generally?
‘Picking Up the Peaces’ is looking for volunteers to give awareness-raising presentations about PTSD to various emergency service and Defence groups. Volunteers can be veterans, serving members or their families/carers from:
- Fire,
- Police,
- Defence,
- Ambulance,
- SES, and
- Rural Fire Service.
All volunteers will be fully trained and provided with support by Picking Up the Peaces prior to and during the period of delivering the sessions. The volunteer presenters will work in pairs and be reimbursed for costs incurred.
To learn more or to register your interest in becoming a volunteer presenter,
contact us here.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an extreme but natural reaction to a traumatic event or series of events, occurring in approximately 25% of those exposed. Motor vehicle accidents trigger most cases of PTSD in Australia, but it can also be caused by domestic violence, rape, other types of abuse, war, torture, medical procedures or natural disasters such as flood, fire or cyclone.
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PTSD Training
There is an enormous need for PTSD training, and Picking up The Peaces has designed an effective training and delivery package. The PTSD Education Program (PEP) Pilot will initially be delivered to emergency services personnel in the ACT in 2011.
Modelled on the proven Mental Illness Education ACT (MIEACT) model, it combines factual material about post traumatic stress disorder with personal stories of living with the disorder, and resources for seeking help and treatment.
Our first 10 Volunteer Educators graduated in March 2011, and as part of the PEP Pilot program, will deliver sessions in the months ahead.
Early presentations were very well received, and the training had a profound impact on those involved. In fact, trainees found the emotional confrontations of addressing their personal stories moving and healing in a way they never anticipated. That effect carries over into presentations, where we’re finding a rapport with the audience that is already changing lives.
The recruiting, training and presentation process, as well as the effect sessions have on audiences, is being externally evaluated. That objective report will be available after the Pilot program completes.
