Opening of the Vasey Resilience Centre
PUZZLEMAN PUTS IT ALL TOGETHER… CHAP Dan Cassidy shows RSL Queensland State vice president
Ewan Cameron (left) and WO2 Adam Keys how the various aspects of the whole person discussed during the
Vasey Resilience Centre pilot course make up the complete soldier
T
HE third pillar in
the 3rd Brigade’s Human
Performance Framework - the
Vasey Resilience Centre - was
officially opened by COMD 3Bde
BRIG Chris Field last week.
BRIG Field said the VRC
complemented the services
provided by the Geckos
Family Centre and the
Soldier Recovery Centre.
The VRC was established after
a recommendation that came
out of the Brigade’s 100-day
assessment and, led by CO 3CER
LTCOL John Daunt, has been
driven by 3CER’s CHAP Dan
Cassidy and WO2 Adam Keys.
CHAP Cassidy said the problem
they had tackled was working out
how to “prehabilitate” soldiers.
“How do we innoculate
our soldiers?” he said.
With input from several
agencies - Defence and
external - they came up with
a two-week pilot course
designed to develop soldiers
in three key areas: physical,
intellectual and character.
He said knowledge about
how to develop the physical
attributes a soldier needed
included knowing about nutrition,
strength and conditioning,
flexibility and recovery.
20 | SEPTEMBER 2016
“If we can do that, we will
have physically agile soldiers,”
CHAP Cassidy said.
He said the intellectual
attributes were broken down
into the emotional and
cognitive components.
That part of the course focussed
on how soldiers “reset”.
“It’s about how they reset their
activities, reset their stress, and
reset their anger,” he said.
“It’s about really helping them
think through their eomotional
state... how they’re affected, and
how they can moderate it.”
The course touched on the
spiritual, ethical, social and
family components of character.
“We realise that for us to have
soldiers that can thrive and
survive, we need to develop
the complete soldier,” he said.
A lifesize jigsaw puzzle of an
Army soldier depicted how the
various pieces completed the
whole picture and “puzzleman”
was a part of every day’s
training on the course.
LTCOL Daunt said much of the
course was modelled on similar
training in professional sport,
especiall