Good ideas tend to travel fast. Such is the case of Coalition of Sailors Against Destructive Decisions (CSADD), a program launched by a small, but enterprising group of young Sailors who were instructed to come up with a safety initiative that would strike home with fellow shipmates in the 18 to 25 age range.
"We were told to break out of the boundaries," says First Class Petty Officer Tim Comerford, one of the Sailors who formed CSADD in 2009 at Commander Navy Region Mid-Atlantic. "We knew we had to come up with something besides the slide shows and safety stand downs, where there's a tendency to stop paying attention after 10 minutes."
The group's brainstorming led to the program, which provides prevention and intervention tools to show Sailors how to make quick, positive decisions in moments of high stress and peer pressure.
"We knew that to be the most successful, CSADD had to be peer driven, not leadership driven," says Comerford. "We also knew that we needed information that could be quickly transmitted using tools that are familiar to young Sailors. No more four-hour presentations."
The result was an information-packed website that includes to-the-point briefs on such topics as drinking, reckless driving, risk management and suicide prevention.
"We also came up with the 'Stop and Think Campaign,' which uses posters that emphasize that taking a few seconds to think can save you from making a bad decision that could alter your life," Comerford says.
The CSADD initiative was enthusiastically endorsed by Scott Benning, then command master chief at CNRMA, and Rear Adm. Mark Boensel, commander of the region. And it didn’t take long for word of the program to spread.
What began two years ago as one group of five has grown to more than 140 CSADD chapters across the Navy. CSADD currently has 15 social networking sites, and it’s estimated that the program actively involves more than 2,000 Sailors. It has been recognized as an official Navy peer-mentoring program since July 2010.
There are no set rules for a CSADD meeting, Comerford says.
"It’s up to the sailor who attends to take the information that's presented and run with it," he adds. "The key element is that you get, say, E-4s or E-5s who are exposed to the campaign and they take those messages back to their peers. They can help their peers make good decisions."
Comerford says every CSADD sailor is equipped to identify behavior that could indicate a person is contemplating suicide and all know the steps to take to get help. And while CSADD does not deal with the specifics of Operational Stress Control, he believes the program’s members can recognize when a shipmate is reacting to psychological stress.
"They're in a good position to help," Comerford says. "CSADD is all about wanting to help your shipmates."
For more information on CSADD, see https://www.cnic.navy.mil/cnrma/Programs/CSADD/index.htm
(First published in Spring 2011)
When The Denial Ends