First responders and veterans have historically required long term mental health care, primarily for PTSD and Chronic PTSD, but a new program is dramatically reducing the readmission rates for some of our most dedicated health professionals.

St John of God’s new STAIR program was piloted in 2021 with a group of just three patients, with the demand so strong, that in 2023, the organisation is running 16 programs of up to ten patients.

Founder, psychologist and Allied Health Manager, Janja Bojanic, said the program’s growth had been “purely through word of mouth”.

“In some of the pilot data we have seen such amazing improvements in our clients,” Ms Bojanic said.

“This is really working, our patients are gaining a great quality of life and decreasing the severity of their PTSD.”

Given St John of God’s location and with most clients coming from rural and remote areas, the STAIR program is a residential format offering clients a unique and effective way to experience treatment and support.

“They have a shared experience in their workplaces, and now we offer them a shared treatment journey. They experience connecting with others with a shared lived experience, and often form important bonds which assists in the healing journey.

“What this new pathway model has shown us is that our patients get such a great level of functioning back that they often don’t need to progress through to the usual Trauma Recovery Program. This is so lovely as it shows that it is addressing those underlying complexities of CPTSD.”

The team also observed significantly lower dropout rates and adverse events, such as self-harm during the program, alcohol consumption, aggressive outburst etc.

“Most excitingly, our pilot data demonstrated that clients who do enter the TRP through the pathway model enter the program with a decrease in their PTSD symptoms and have greater and more sustained outcomes at the completion of the treatment.”

For Ms Bojanic, the biggest reward is giving back to those who give up so much for us.

“Working in the field of trauma recovery we see, day in day out, how these men and women give their entire lives to serving their communities and country, and then, how they must continue to live life after on the job traumas.

“Whether it’s the police force or the military, these first responders and Veterans see the unimaginable and then are expected to shake it off and resume work as usual on the next shift.”

As one of the largest providers of mental health care in the country, Ms Bojanic said her team wanted to find a solution to give these heroes their life back sooner rather than later.

“Research tells us that both PTSD and CPTSD are both equally responsive to treatment, however clients with CPTSD remained highly symptomatic after the treatment was completed.

“We wanted to figure out why and from there how we could make sure those with more complex cases of PTSD could embark on a path tailored specifically to them, with more positive results than ever before.

“We found if we adopted an individual and holistic multi-modal approach, we could begin to fix these foundations at their core.”

“The end result has been incredible with, less adverse events during programs and with patients empowered to live their lives in not necessarily the same way as before the trauma or traumas but in a new way where they have control, meaning or purpose once again.”