COMMENTARY
NEW APPRECIATION
Not all of COVID-19’s impacts were negative. Teleworking from home gave us a new appreciation for one another and for our families, and a realization for how much we need each other. (Image by Getty Images)
Te authors, Samantha K. Brooks, Ph.D., Rebecca K. Webster, Ph.D., Louise E. Smith, Ph.D., Lisa Woodland, Simon Wessely, Neil Greenberg and Gideon James Rubin, found that isolated indi- viduals “reported sufficient symptoms to warrant a diagnosis of a trauma-related mental health disorder.” Imagine if our leaders did not react the way they did.
Army leaders developed trainings to address feelings of isolation. Billy Hall- mark, the Army substance abuse and suicide prevention programs manager at Detroit Arsenal, Michigan, said, “Train- ing constantly needs to change to meet the needs of the current situation. … Due to the impact of COVID-19, racial tension, job loss, grief, isolation, political tension
and the unpredictability of life increases stress and depression and need to be addressed.”
Dr. Holly O’Reilly, a clinical psycholo- gist at the Defense Health Agency, said that “sometimes a little bit of help is all we need to improve our mental health and be mission ready; taking small steps to address problems early on makes a big difference, especially during the pandemic.” So, our leaders did exactly that—they took small steps to address potentially gigantic problems.
HOW DO WE KEEP THESE GAINS? Critical to success was that leaders applied the “soft skills” to battle the “tough”
enemy. Life as we know it suddenly stopped. All of those who could stay home or were forced to stay home still are home. In a matter of days, we were taken out of our busy lives and told to deal with the new normal. It would be intellectually implausible to think that this new reality hasn’t taught us anything. Surely it must be giving all of us a new perspective and encouragement to reprioritize the hierar- chy of importance.
So, what became really important? I think people did. Given the current environ- ment and its impact on all operations, people remain the first priority. “Winning matters, and people are my No. 1 prior- ity,” said McConville, the Army chief of staff. “People are our Soldiers—regular
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