The Foreign Service Journal, April 2017

60 APRIL 2017 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA NEWS Handling Stress and Trauma in the Foreign Service On Feb. 6, a panel discus- sion on resilience was held at AFSA headquarters. The event was sponsored by the State Department and USAID, in partnership with the Una Chapman Cox Foundation, the Inter- national Peace & Security Institute and the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. The members of the panel were Ambassador (ret.) Charles Ries, USAID Office of Transition Initia- tives Team Leader Rachel Karioki, Director of the Center of Excellence in Foreign Affairs Resilience Beth Payne and Program Director for international programs at IPSI, Andrés Martinez. Panelists focused on building resilience and on managing and prevent- ing stress-related problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), for Foreign Service personnel and other frontline civilians. Amb. Ries gave the key- note, recalling his experi- ences as U.S. ambassador to Greece when a rocket propelled grenade hit the embassy building in Janu- ary 2007. Thankfully no one was hurt, but the attack nonetheless had a profound effect on the embassy com- munity. Ries discussed his use of town hall meetings to provide information quickly and reassure embassy staff, which he believes helped reduce the severity of stress-related problems for those affected. Following the presenta- tion, the panel took ques- tions from the audience about resilience strategies, dealing with PTSD and the perceived stigma that remains around mental health issues. As Andrés Martinez, noted during the discussion, “Resilience is not a trait that people either have or don’t have.” IPSI, in conjunction with the Una Chapman Cox Foundation and ADST, have launched the Resilience Hub for Frontline Civilians (www. frontlinecivilian.com ), an anonymous online resource center for training, educa- tion, self-assessment and tools to help individuals and groups build resilience and prevent PTSD. A recording of the event is available at the AFSA web- site, www.afsa.org/video. n —Gemma Dvorak, Associate Editor Panelist Beth Payne answers a question from the audience at the Feb. 6 discussion on stress and trauma in the Foreign Service community. AFSA/GEMMADVORAK