Open Arms: Veteran Self-Help Tools

Do you know how many veteran self-help tools Open Arms offers?

This was the very question Recovery Partners consultant, Ben asked his veteran client, Ryan during their first meeting.

Ryan was struggling with his transition from ADF to civilian life. He was barely sleeping. He was avoiding his friends. He knew he had to get help but how and where was an unknown. Ben opened his phone and jumped on to the Open Arms website.

Under the Get Support section, self help tools category, Open Arms can actually help you decide which veteran self-help tool is best for you!

Ryan unfortunately did not have any idea this existed and was keen to check it out more. Ben suggested that they could figure out which self help tool to use together. Ryan agreed, he was so grateful for Ben’s support with this.

In response to the first question, “Select the most appropriate response that describes what you are experiencing”, Ryan chose Behaviours. Ryan was experiencing sleep problems, not enough time spent with others and as he was looking at this website, admitted to drinking alcohol too much of late.

When Ryan selected each of these behaviours, Open Arms suggested a number of tools. For example, when Ryan selected “sleep problems”, Open Arms suggested a short video on healthy sleeping, asked a few more specific questions and then offered a number of tips for getting to sleep. Ryan, understandably, was very surprised at how effortless Open Arms made it to access this helpful information. Ben suggested that Ryan check this out more closely and Ryan agreed.

Fast forward to the next month, Ben caught up with Ryan at our office. It may be an overused statement but it was true: Ryan was a completely different person! He looked fresh, young and full of energy. He had also lost a bit of that beer belly. He mentioned to Ben that he was sleeping heaps better than before and not needing to drink alcohol as much. He was still working on being more social. Ben reminded Ryan that this is something DVA rehab can help with via the psychosocial support they offer and proceeded to discuss this further during their meeting!