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This Topic Tuesday we'll be focusing on supporting someone experiencing PTSD. Our special guest @DeanYates will be talking from his own first hand experience of PTSD - how it developed, his symptoms, what helped and what didn't.
Dean Yates, 49, has been a journalist, bureau chief and editor for Reuters, the international news service, for 25 years. He has reported extensively on war, conflict and natural disasters in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. While the Reuters bureau chief in Baghdad in 2007, three of Dean’s Iraqi staff were killed, two by a U.S. Apache helicopter.
Dean was diagnosed with PTSD in March 2016. He spent five weeks in the Ward 17 psychiatric unit at Melbourne’s Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital in Aug-Sept 2016. He was readmitted for three weeks in July 2017. Besides PTSD, Dean has moral injury.
Since May 2017, Dean has been head of journalist mental health and wellbeing strategy at Reuters, a newly created position for the company’s 2,600 staff around the world.
Below are some of the articles published about Dean's experience. Please be aware that some of the content in the links below could be triggering as they talk in detail about the distressing experiences Dean had during his time as a journalist.
In November 2016, Reuters published Dean’s account of his battle with PTSD. Click here
The ABC did this story on Dean in July 2017.
Columbia Journalism Review did a profile on Dean in this November 2017 story.
Join us from 7pm AEDT, Tuesday 27 Feb.
Hit the 'Like' button below to get an email reminder on the night.
Hi @Kate27
Welcome to the forums 
Yes, it’s a chat here on the forum site. You can learn about Dean’s experience and ask him questions right here, tomorrow night. If you’d like to see how a Topic Tuesday works, you can take a look at the most recent one here.
Hi everyone,
In particular
@Missmel @Susana @pos2060 @Former-Member @Skyelea @Adge @Murph @Bubbles3 @Former-Member @Cherryblossom @Shaz51 @Hillsy
Just a heads up that this discussion will start in 10mins. When 7pm AEDT hits, you can research the page to see the 'Reply' button so you can get involved.
For those who are new:
- The thread doesn't automatically update, so you have to refresh the browser / page to see new posts
- There's 10 posts to a page, and then a new page will be created. You can see the numbers of pages and jump to the most recent at the top and the bottom of the thread.
- If you want to address someone specifically, use the @ symbol before typing their username
Before we get started, please be mindful of our Community Guidelines. As we are talking about PTSD, the guideline to pay particular attention to is around posting content that contains graphic or specific details, or any descriptive account, of a traumatic experience. You’re welcome to still name it, for example, ‘sexual abuse’ ‘car accident’ ‘suicide attempt’, but we ask that members don’t go into graphic or descriptive detail of these events, as they can be enormously triggering for others.
If anything here becomes too distressing for you, please do what you need to do to take care of yourself. You may need some time away from this discussion (don’t worry, you can read back over it on a later date) and if needed, please contact someone to talk to – whether that be a loved one or reaching out to a support service such as Lifeline (13 11 14) SANE Help Centre (1800 18 7263 or chat)
Stay tuned for kick off in 10 mins
WELCOME EVERYONE
Firstly, I wanted to welcome @DeanYates. You may have seen in the initial post that Dean has been a journalist, bureau chief and editor for Reuters, the international news service, for 25 years.
He has reported extensively on war, conflict and natural disasters in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. While the Reuters bureau chief in Baghdad in 2007, three of Dean’s Iraqi staff were killed, two by a U.S. Apache helicopter.
Dean was diagnosed with PTSD in March 2016. He spent five weeks in the Ward 17 psychiatric unit at Melbourne’s Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital in Aug-Sept 2016. He was readmitted for three weeks in July 2017. Besides PTSD, Dean has moral injury.
Since May 2017, Dean has been head of journalist mental health and wellbeing strategy at Reuters, a newly created position for the company’s 2,600 staff around the world.
Tonight he joins us to share his experience to give those who have a loved one in their life who experiences PTSD, an insight into his symptoms, what strategies have helped him and how his loved ones best supported him.
But to kick off – Dean & I are interested in what brings YOU here tonight
