Q/A Session Sept 2024: How does the framework address risk when working with populations experiencing high levels of mental health issues?
Question: How does the framework address risk when working with populations experiencing high levels of mental health issues, such as military personnel, during conflict?
Answer: Addressing risk when a whole group is impacted by high-stress environments, such as military personnel during times of conflict, can be complex. Heightened stress across the population can make it harder to detect individual struggles.
The SafeSide Framework addresses this by focusing on an individualised, contextualised understanding of risk. Many people will experience distress and will be OK and grow from those experiences. When everyone is impacted, it's crucial to identify those who may not visibly show distress but are not OK.
Risk state is risk relative to a prior time in a person’s life, such as their baseline or before the conflict. Focusing on risk state can help us recognise changes in a person’s mental health and well-being relative to their baseline before the conflict. Once this change can be identified and described, it can guide the robustness, intensity, and duration of safety plans and supports.
Foreseeable changes and contingency planning are also particularly effective during heightened stress. Encouraging the person to think ahead about what could happen to make things worse and make contingency plans for those events helps the entire team understand what specific circumstances could heighten concerns about a member’s wellbeing. Developing contingency plans equips the person to be prepared for how they might handle it. This also serves as an intervention that reinforces the ability to cope, promoting agency and a sense of control and readiness.
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