Critical Response Performance and Innovation Podcast Daniel

In this episode, I speak with Sam Cox. Sam was raised in South Devon and throughout his school years developed a taste for the outdoors living close to both the beach and Dartmoor.

This sense of adventure continued after he left school and joined the Royal Marines in 2010. He has tested himself throughout the globe’s harshest environments from the humidity of the jungles in Brunei, the heat of Central Asia, to the depths of the iciest temperatures in Norway. He will be using these experiences to help tackle the challenges of crossing 1,950km of Antarctic tundra and glaciers.

In November 2023, Sam will embark on a unique solo and unsupported journey across Antarctica. Starting at the coast of Berkner Island and finishing at the base of the Reedy glacier, via the South Pole, this expedition is a total distance that is likely to exceed 2000 km. 
As one of the last wildernesses, this will be a pure test of physical and mental endurance.

If you would like to support Sam on this incredible attempt or follow his journey, more details are available at;

https://www.frozendagger.co.uk/about-sam

https://www.linkedin.com/company/frozen-dagger/

https://www.instagram.com/frozendagger/

https://www.facebook.com/FrozenDaggerSolo

Today I want to ask the question, could the Pygmalion effect be having an impact on individual mental health outcomes?

The Pygmalion or Rosenthal effect is a psychological phenomenon in which the leader's high expectations can lead to improved performance and low expectations lead to worsened performance. Subconsciously influencing their actions and behaviours in relation to those individuals leading to the realisation of those expectations.

Are we asking the right questions about veteran suicide in Australia? Should we look at it as a wicked problem, where each individual has their own multifactorial circumstances and co-dependency from their own environment that we can find specific interventions for?  Rather than grouping everyone into a causal effect theory from Defence Service?

Rather than classify everyone who has one day of service as a veteran, should we look at separate groups of long-term ex-serving Defence members, combat veterans, early career separation..etc?

When you look at the data, each of these groups has significantly different risk ratios and factors.

Does combat create widespread problems? What impact does DVA  have? does it create financial dependency? and what effect do the extensive number of charities actually have on outcomes?  

The right solutions and interventions exist on the other side of the right questions.
 

In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking to Shuan O'gorman.

Shaun O’Gorman is a Human Behaviour, High Performance and Resilience consultant, keynote speaker, and author. After joining the Queensland Police Service in 1989, Shaun worked in the Police Dog Squad for many years as well as the Covert and Surveillance unit working on Major and Organised Crime. While in the K9 unit Shaun was involved in daily high-risk critical incidents ranging from violent street brawls, high-speed pursuits, barricaded suspects, domestic violence, and shooting incidents. The majority of these placed him at high risk of serious injury or even death. He also performed duties with the Special Emergency Response Team (SWAT) as a tactical K9 handler.
Shaun left the QPS and was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The years of exposure to violence and tragedy resulted in clinical depression and a battle with suicide. Shaun spent three nights in a row, a Glock pistol in his hand, laying in bed trying to think of reasons not to end his life. To overcome his mental health injuries, Shaun spent the next 17 years immersed in the study of personal development, human behaviour and high performance with a goal of healing himself and living a happy life. He now devotes his life to helping others using the knowledge and education that helped him help himself.
Shaun also had a successful 15-year corporate career working for multi-national corporations in commercial property development. This career included being The National Leasing Manager for a $1.6billion retail investment fund.
While forging his successful corporate executive career Shaun developed an interest in mentoring and coaching others and now continues to follow his passion for helping others to create high performing lives for themselves. He established “The Strong Life Project” to deliver High-Performance Mentoring,  Workshops, Keynote Speeches, daily podcasts, and articles focused on providing tools and strategies to empower people to conquer challenges, manage stress, and create happy and fulfilled lives.
As an accomplished author, Shaun’s most recent book, “My Dark Companion”, chronicles his own highly personal fight with PTSD, depression suicide and how he has come out the other side as a role model for people of all walks of life on how to create a life that you love.

If you want to reach out to Shuan, he can be contacted though the following links or if you want to learn from his resources just follow his social media

Website: https://www.thestronglifeproject.com/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaun-ogorman/
IG:  https://www.instagram.com/thestronglifeproject/
fb: https://www.facebook.com/thestronglifeproject

Welcome to the Critical Response Performance and Innovation podcast, this episode's guest is Andy Bell.

Andy Bell is a Senior Lecturer in Paramedicine at Griffith University, Gold Coast Australia.  He is a PhD candidate at the University of Southern Queensland and most recently took up a full-time role as Paramedic Team Leader for TacMed Australia.  His role at TacMed includes the clinical governance, educational development and team leadership of a group of specialized Tactical Paramedics, who operate extensively in the defence force space.   He continues an ongoing 16-year career with the Queensland Ambulance Service, both in clinical and educational roles, and has worked for a number of private medical providers specialising in clinical care in mass gatherings and remote and austere environments.   As a result of his work in these environments, he has always had a particular interest in the quality of performance in high-stress/threat operators.  Andy is part of an extensive group of performance and wellbeing researchers from Griffith University working towards improving operator decision-making and resilience to stress under cognitive load.  His personal research predominately focuses on educational methodology as a vehicle for developing improved clinical decision-making and reasoning in paramedics, and more recent investigations into the psychophysiological nexus as a measure of performance and stress inoculation in high acuity operators.  He has several academic publications to his name and is an Editor for the Journal of High Threat and Austere Medicine, and an Associate Editor of The Shift Extension Paramedic Publishing Platform.

If you would like to learn more, follow or get in touch with Andy please visit the following links.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-bell-64104562/  
https://twitter.com/paradub 

https://www.theshiftextension.org/

Today's episode is a special edition dedicated to those who serve in the QPS and broader Law Enforcement community, as a special thank you for doing what you do in keeping us safe and to try and offer something back to help, in your time of need. 

In this interview, I have the pleasure of being joined by Melanie Freeman to cover topics around leadership, social connection and growth following traumatic events. 

Melanie is a registered psychologist and management consultant and has practised for over 25yrs.  Most of her work is in developing the capability of leaders and teams and this includes first responder populations.  Melanie has also worked as an army reserve psychologist for over 20yrs, 12yrs of that with Special Operations.

I hope you enjoy this episode and that it provides some valuable information, if you or any of your team are experiencing difficulty please do not hesitate to reach out to your network and support systems to seek professional guidance or help.

If you want to reach out to Melanie or learn more from the resources she has made available please head to;

https://performance-science.com.au/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/performance-science-hpo-pty-ltd/

Stay safe and look after each other.