Resilience Training: What should it Look Like?

     Resilience Training is a highly experiential program that includes a variety of hands-on learning opportunities. Participants “learn by doing”; individual, partner, and small group exercises facilitate skill mastery by enabling participants to practice the resilience and well-being skills and develop strategies for immediate application in their personal and professional life.

Each program session design should progress as described:

• Program instructors introduce resilience and well-being skills

• Scientific background,

• Why Resilience and each specific skill matters,

• How to use each skill addressed.

• Program instructors demonstrate and role-play the skills.

• Participants have opportunities to practice the skills through exercises:

• Train-the-Trainer programs also have opportunities to instruct,

• Receive personalized feed-forward coaching and instruction.

The skills list identified herein should be selected and delivered in a customized manner to fit the specific agency's acknowledged needs. The course topics selected, and the order of delivery should be structured to address the specific needs of the agency. The programming itself is recommended to be included in the agency's New Employee School curriculum. There is recommended follow-up to incorporate for the agency's In-Service Training requirements to annually address specific “refreshers” identified by Agency administration as necessary. The initial programming is highly customizable; however, it is recommended to be delivered as at least a 40-hour initial program integrated within the New Employee Schools. There is enough training material to extend the program to 80-hours, if necessary, effective and efficient. An alternative design is recommended for delivery to In-Service staff as determined by agency administration. Program details include three categorical trained skills. The three categorical skill groups are listed for clarification.

Trained Skills to Enhance Cognitive and Emotional Well-Being:

• Automatic Thought Conditioning – Self Talk

• Learned Optimism

• Thinking Traps

• Detecting Icebergs

• Problem Solving

• Putting Things in Perspective

• Deliberate Breathing and Relaxation

• Mental Games

• Real-Time Resilience

• Positive Emotions and Savoring

• Gratitude

• Rejuvenation

Trained Skills to Cultivate Strengths of Character:

• Identify and Leverage Character Strengths

• Character Strengths and Challenges

• Character Strengths and Values

• Character Strengths and Leadership

• Use a Signature Strength in a New Way

• Develop a Strength You Value

Trained Skills that Build Strong Relationships:

·         High Quality Connections

·         Assertive Communication

·         Active Constructive Responding

These course topics address empirically validated skills from the fields of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and Positive Psychology. There is a large amount of historical evidence-based scientific literature beginning as early as the 1970’s through the present that indicates CBT is an effective treatment for depression, anxiety, and a variety of mental health problems. Resilience Training incorporates strategies from CBT and Positive Psychology into a prevention model. The Program offered by the University of Pennsylvania Positive Psychology Center has a track record of evidence-based expertise that is customizable and proven to create sustainable change.

Resilience Training: What it does – Stress Inoculation.

     Resilience Training Programs serve to inoculate first responders working in high stress environments against the mental, emotional, behavioral, and physiological effects of acute, chronic, and traumatic stress stimulus events. Delivering Resilience Training at the beginning of a first responders' career along with follow-up refresher training sessions will result in fewer mental health diagnoses for anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, and also fewer diagnoses for substance use disorders (alcohol and drugs) as well as fewer stress-related cardiovascular ailments and less incidence of obesity.  

     The largest similar organization using Master Resilience Training to inoculate their employees is the United States Army. The Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness model is now an organization-wide practice. The fourth investigative report conducted with the authority of the Under-Secretary of the Army is titled, Evaluation of Resilience Training and Mental and Behavioral Health Outcomes. The report confirmed at statistically significant levels exactly what earlier investigative reports found, that “exposure to Resilience Training increased various aspects of Soldier Resilience and Psychological Health, which, in turn, appeared to be associated with a reduced likelihood of receiving a diagnosis for a mental health problem (i.e., anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder) and a reduced likelihood for diagnosis of a substance use disorder” (Harms, et. al., 2013). The findings in all reports to date have provided evidence that Soldiers exposed to Resilience Training are diagnosed with mental health disorders and substance use disorders at significantly lower rates than are the soldiers that do not receive the training. The most recent report also accounted for soldiers that were deployed to active duty “combat” areas. The statistical significance holds true when accounting for deployment as well.      

     Psychological problem diagnoses and substance use disorders result in considerable cost for Corrections Systems nationwide and other first responder populations are no different. Each of the identified diagnosed mental health or substance use disorder issues has the effect of increasing incremental sick leave, extended sick leave, mandatory over-time back fill, and positional turnover; stress-related resulting effects also reduce productivity and effectiveness at the personal as well as the organizational level. Here is an excerpt from the United States Army evaluation of the Master Resilience Training program which is the operational component of the Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness program, report:

There are three notable results from the evaluation. First, consistent with previous evaluations (Lester et al., 2011c), resilience training was associated with higher Resilience and Psychological Health (R/PH) scores of soldiers. Specifically, soldiers in the training condition demonstrated higher levels of adaptability, character, coping, friendship, and optimism than soldiers in the non-training condition. Second, evidence suggests that optimism and adaptability mediated the relationship between resilience training and diagnoses for mental health problems. This is an important finding regarding the potential for Resilience Training to improve the R/PH of soldiers, and to reduce the incidence of serious mental health problems via improving soldier R/PH. Third, resilience training appears to be associated with statistical significance to a reduced likelihood that a Soldier would receive a diagnosis for a substance abuse problem (Harms, et.al., 2013).

     The expressed objective for any trauma-informed first-responder agency should be to value employee mental health to a degree that allows the organization to shift from a reactive approach (creating, diagnosing, and then treating the pathological outcomes of stress and trauma exposure) to a proactive organizational approach focused on preventing the pathological outcome from ever occurring. Each agency able to implement a proactive approach on a department wide scale will be considered a national leader in Trauma-Informed Leadership through the introduction of Resilience Training at an organizational level, pioneer, and national leader in promoting employee health and well-being.