Afghanistan

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (February 23, 2009) - Servicemembers in Afghanistan now have a place to turn to for help with the toughest aspects of their deployment when they need it most. 

The Bagram Freedom Restoration Center is the first mental health clinic in Afghanistan. The center’s main goal is to give servicemembers skills they can use to cope with combat stress and the rigors of a deployment and return them to duty quickly. 

“We are tapping into things that [servicemembers] possibly already know,” said Air Force Tech. Sgt. Mirabel Meekins, the clinic’s operations non-commissioned officer in charge, “or offering them new skills and techniques they can use at the Forward Operating Base or Combat Outpost, or after they separate from the military.” 

The clinic hosts a three to five-day structured program covering many general topics, including anger management, common task training, post-traumatic stress disorder awareness and warrior resiliency. 

The program has a common standard outline for all servicemembers enrolled, but can also be tailored to the specific needs of the individual servicemember. The skills and information the servicemember receives from the clinic helps throughout the deployment, but can last long past that. 

The center’s focus on quickly returning a servicemember to duty is one of the key aspects of the program. Prior to the Bagram Freedom Restoration Center, servicemembers in Afghanistan had only two options to address mental health issues. 

One option was for the servicemember to spend a few days of rest and relaxation or light duty at their respective FOB, and then return to duty.  The other option was to be evaluated at BAF, and if further treatment was needed, the servicemember was sent to Germany or the U.S. for additional care.

“This fills that in-between gap of people that need a little bit more, but they don’t need the whole enchilada,” explains Air Force Col. David Geyer, Task Force Med commander.  

The program takes many of the components of similar programs in Iraq, and tailors them to the Afghanistan area of responsibility. 

Six staff members, a mixture of Air Force and Army mental health and occupational therapy professionals, comprise the staff that serves at the clinic. The clinic is staffed 24 hours a day and all members of the staff are involved in helping the servicemember get back to duty.

“We’re really pleased to have this center,” said Geyer.  “We’re looking forward to the ability to provide the same kind of service that other servicemembers have had the benefit of in the Iraqi theater.”