We know that most mental health needs are not met with professional services but with Everyday Social Resilience.

We also know that factors contributing to poor mental health are highly complex and not just the result of trauma. The recent release of the Royal Commission report into Defence and Veterans Suicide demonstrates that the majority of suicides in the Department are not by persons who served in combat. So, there must be something deeply cultural in the Department that triggers such a high rate of suicide.

There are some lessons to be learned from this report for the safety industry.

A few things must be noted at the outset, the Report:

• Doesn’t confuse psychosocial risk as ‘hazards’.
• Acknowledges suicide as a highly complex social problem
• Understands that there is no formula in risk factors resulting in suicide ideation
• Suicide is recognised as a health issue not a safety issue
• The military culture is understood as a primary cause of suicide
• Culture is not ‘what we do around here’
• The best way forward comes from outside of the mono-disciplinarity of the military
• That ‘chain of command’ mentality creates toxicity
• Military values contribute significantly to suicide ideation
• Individualist models of resilience are unhelpful
• ‘Tribalism’ is not healthy or relationally upbuilding for all
• That the language of compassion, helping and care are tokenistic, even considered ‘woke’
• Unethical abuse of power and a hegemony of power contribute significantly to loss of meaning
• Separation and isolation from family and critical relationships contribute to suicide

One thing is for sure, the idea of associating ‘military standards’ to anything such as mental health, is anathema to an approach using SPoR. All the evidence about the challenges of mental health demonstrates the contrary (https://safetyrisk.net/no-place-for-military-metaphors-in-safety/).

In the case of health and safety, the last place to seek help with mental health, is in any source spruiking ‘military standards’. Only Safety would think that the best way to help and care for others in risk, is to develop a ‘lean green safety machine’. And this of course comes from so-called ‘safety differently’ that is not ‘different’. Similarly, the language of ‘performance’ is unhelpful for any mental health strategy in an organisation.

What we know from the research is that individualist metaphors and models of ‘pull your self up by your own boot straps’ don’t work. We also know that brain-centric models and metaphors of: toughness, mind gym, ‘bounce back’, ‘mental fitness’, ‘grit’, ‘tenacity’, ‘toughness’ and heroics, don’t work. Much of this stuff is appealing to the behaviourist mindset that is about 50 years out of date.

So, much of what parades as resilience training about the workplace is consumed with individualism, sports stars, kick boxers, hero-types and military-type stuff that is completely irrelevant and non-motivating to Everyday Social Resilience. What happens in reality is:

• Stuff is dished up that is tokenistic, short-term and enables organisations to do very little about the structure, organising and managerialism masked as leadership.
• By the time things get out of hand and professional psychologists and psychiatrists (in short supply) are required, its usually too little – too late.
• We also know that very few employees avail themselves of free Employee Assistance Program (EAP) support.
• Even in times of trauma and crisis most people seek close trusted friends and family (if they have such networks) for support. They seek Every-day sources for resilience where they live and where trust is anchored.

What the research shows is that special programs, one-off events, pep-type talks and the tough approach, don’t work or have a short shelf life. Tricks, gimmicks, marketing, populist goop, doesn’t work. In many ways, these popular types of approach to resilience hinder the development of Everyday Social Resilience.

What is needed is a focus on longitudinal meaning and purpose in work with a focus on Everyday Social Resilience. What this means is that organisations need to build into the very way they organise: longitudinal, meaningful relationships in the workplace that operate at the grassroots of the organisation.

In many ways Everyday Social Resilience is not something that can be created through a top-down approach. Similarly, Everyday Social Resilience cannot be manufactured by HR Departments. Everyday Social Resilience requires an organic, relational, semiotic and ecological nature/generation that is holistic and shared by all.

In Everyday Social Resilience the real strength in effectiveness is realised in meaningful relationships at every level of the organisation.

The concluding chapters of the book Everyday Social Resilience give some clues about how to research, what to read and how to stimulate a start in a journey in Everyday Social Resilience.

If you are interested and want to know more, you can write to admin@spor.com.au and we can put you in touch with someone near you to help.