WEBVTT

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- My name is Specialist Darius Sherman.

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I am a 68L, occupational
therapy assistant,

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and I'm with the 85th
COSC out of the Fort Hood.

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COSC stands for combat
operational stress control team.

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Currently I am a part of
the joint health team,

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or joint operational health team.

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Basically it's a bunch of, uh...

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It's airmen, navy professionals, army,

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and we're going around as a team,

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a couple different teams actually.

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And we're going to hospitals

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and we're checking up on the soldiers.

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On the first in line providers.

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It's honestly been great actually.

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Because if you think about it,

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they're doing all the
work on the frontline,

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and taking care of everybody else,

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but who's really checking on them?

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And on like that point in time.

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And also, some people just
don't realize you know

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what they go through in this kind of,

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and we like bring it to light.

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Saying that you know, they've
been through a hard time,

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and giving them somebody to talk to.

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You see a lot of people
that are tired, for sure.

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You can tell a lot of them are burnt out.

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Even though that's what
they want to be doing.

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And that has just effected
their lives as well.

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You know seeing all the
stuff that they see.

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I can't imagine what they go through.

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So you can see kinda the effects,

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but you see strong people also as well.

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Because they're going through that,

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and they're continuing
to do what they gotta do

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to take care of the patients.

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As our behavioral health support team,

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we offer resiliency classes.

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We also offer any type of
resources or information

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for somebody to be able to get

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behavioral health support as well.

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But our resiliency classes are,

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they're called the CORE Program.

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So it's Combat Operational...

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Combat Operational Resiliency Education.

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And we offer like sleep
hygiene, stress management,

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managing conflict,
effective communication,

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these are just a list of
the classes that we have.

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And we offer those to civilians
and also military personnel.

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And we're trying to help them,

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basically put tools in their toolbox

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to help them be able to deal with it

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whenever they get back
to their normal station.

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I would say the thing
that I'm most proud of

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is just being able to
effect people's lives.

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Even just from saying
hi, we're here for you.

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Because a lot of times, like I said,

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they don't get checked up on.

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Not necessarily within themselves,

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but from like outlier
units and things like that.

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So just being able to just
say that I'm here for you,

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and then see people confide in us,

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and actually like ask for help.

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Or just be able to vent,
is an amazing thing.

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Dealing with those patients

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is probably one of the
hardest things I have to do

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during this pandemic.

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It's probably one of the
hardest jobs to have to do.

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And I can't imagine
being in their footsteps.

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But me being able to listen to them vent,

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and maybe be able to
give them a little advice

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to how to deal with the situation,

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it gives me the joy
from doing this mission.