Collaboration

Hello All this is my first attempt at this blog thing, so bear with me. My concern is we are still working in a Vacuum. Recently I attended the ISTSS (International Studies for Traumatic Stress society) and while at this event I ran into fellow Canadians who were very interested in a seminar which presented the Sesame Street Videos dealing with military families and deployment stress. This resource was new to them. I am aware that these videos have been used in Western Canada for at least 2 years. My question is how to do we share all the great initiatives and lessons learned that we already have? Is standardization the answer? Is there the possibility to have a national coordinator who can ensure that people are not repeating mistakes across the country and the great activities that are working could be shared without us going to the source five times and paying copy right fees over and over again? My thoughts are with a national coordinator or coordination cell we can maintain the local, grassroots initiatives that work well while expanding so mistakes are not repeated and resources are shared more readily. Perhaps that is what DFMS is doing, then great my suggestion is it needs to expanded and formalized. This would also lead to accountability so locations are not repeating mistakes that may have already been learned by a different area. (I am not sure if that makes sense).....Caveat is that this is my first blog attempt. Take care all Tiffany.