Resilience Expert Teaches National Guard Officers to Spot PTSD

NEW YORK, April 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Project Rebirth, Inc., (www.projectrebirth.org) the resilience resource for those who serve community and country, announces its executive director will be launching a first-of-its-kind PTSD training at a National Guard conference in Topeka, Kansas this week.

Posttraumatic stress disorder is a pervasive problem for the U.S. military, with nearly 20% of those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan affected. So the Kansas National Guard, long at the forefront of PTSD awareness and resilience training, has invited resilience expert Aaron Leonard to teach senior leaders how to identify and address PTSD and depression within the ranks.

Leonard, a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and Executive Director of Project Rebirth, will be using specially designed curriculum including a short documentary film 'REBIRTH: Brian's Journey.' It features a Ground Zero construction worker who developed PTSD after he lost his brother on 9/11. The course, developed by Leonard and Project Rebirth Director of Research David Scheinfeld, PhD., also introduces the officers to the ranges of PTSD and discusses the signs and symptoms.

"This is a way for us to continue our mission of keeping 9/11 relevant and alive," said Leonard. "I'll help their senior leaders recognize what PTSD looks like and when they need to get involved."

"I'm excited to have him here because it's taking the program in a newer direction," said First Sgt. Jared Worley, director of the Resilience Operations Center of Kansas (ROCK). "Seeing something new helps keep it fresh."

The seminar will be part of the National Guard Association of Kansas' Joint Conference April 17 - 19, an annual gathering attended by hundreds of commissioned and noncommissioned officers from around the state. The Project Rebirth: Post Traumatic Stress Awareness Training curriculum will be used in the annual resilience training of over 7,500 Army and Air National Guard personnel by the end of this year alone.

For more information on the National Guard conference: www.ngaks.org  

About Project Rebirth

The not-for-profit Project Rebirth combines its eleven films based on the eight-year first person accounts of 9/11 First Responders and survivors and the world's largest time lapse project -- including the Peabody Award-winning documentary Rebirth -- and the talents of its diverse team to create and share unique resilience programs for First Responders, Military & Veterans, Community Leaders and Medical & Mental Health Professionals.

Project Rebirth: a resilience resource for all who serve community and country.

Project Rebirth Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ProjectRebirth

Project Rebirth Twitter feed: @ProjectRebirth https://twitter.com/ProjectRebirth

CONTACT: 

Aaron Leonard
Project Rebirth Executive Director
512-961-0754
[email protected]

SOURCE Project Rebirth

Related Links

http://www.projectrebirth.org