Guests on Air
Members login
Watch

DanaG Mars to Venus Dana Only

Dana Gambrill · 18 February 2019

Wellness · Entrepreneur · HR & Culturein
Watch on YouTube →
Share on social:FacebookLinkedInX
Key topicsHow to Find the One Area of Life Driving Your OverwhelmDana Gambrill built Paper Kite's Navigating Human program around a pattern her team sees again and again: overwhelm feels all-encompassing, yet it usually comes from just one or two areas of life. The program works as a life lens across eight areas, such as fitness, sleep and nutrition, with a mentor who has come through their own challenges helping the person see which parts are working and which are tipping the balance. Most people try to fix everything at once; she argues the faster route is to find the one area doing the damage and start there. She walks through how that conversation runs and what changes once the source is named. Listeners leave with a practical way to break a heavy load into parts and decide where to put their energy first.Stand Down — The Months After Service When Veterans Are Most at RiskDana Gambrill took her work on veteran suicide before Australia's Royal Commission, after projects with the Australian Defence Force's Joint Health Command and US Veterans Affairs. Most people put veteran suicide down to PTSD, and she agrees it is a factor, but she argues the sharper danger is timing: the stretch from the moment someone knows they will leave the military to 12 to 18 months after they go is the highest-risk period for a suicide attempt. In Australia, between four and six veterans still take their own lives every week. She explains why that transition window gets missed and what families, employers and services can do while it is open. Listeners leave knowing when a veteran is most likely to need support, and how to show up before a crisis.Been There — Why Struggling Service Members Trust a Survivor Over a BrochureDana Gambrill interviewed serving members and their families around Australia for the Defence Force's Joint Health Command, to find out why they were not using the mental health services provided to them. What she found was simple: someone under strain wants to talk first to a person who has faced the same trouble and come through it, not a 25-year-old graduate or a brochure from the intranet. She built that finding into Paper Kite, where mentors who have lived through their own challenges sit with people across eight areas of life. She explains why lived experience opens conversations that qualifications alone cannot, and how workplaces and services can put survivors at the front of their support. Listeners leave knowing why the first conversation matters most, and who should have it.View all topics →

About Dana Gambrill

Dana Gambrill, podcast guest

Founder

Founder Paper Kite Wellness CollectiveNavigating Human 8-area life lens mentoring programADF Joint Health Command mental health workEx-IT executive Smart cities, DXC and IBM Consulting

Dana Gambrill is the founder of Paper Kite Wellness Collective and Paper Kite People, based in Canberra, Australia. Paper Kite helps people build the stamina to handle everyday life and the resilience to rise when things go wrong, working with them before they break rather than as a clinical service.

Before Paper Kite, Dana was an IT executive who applied technology to real-world outcomes, including smart cities work and consulting with DXC Technology and IBM Consulting. Much of that work was in the military space. With the Australian Defence Force's Joint Health Command she looked at why serving members and their families were not using the mental health services provided to them, and found that people want to speak to someone who has been through it. She also spoke before Australia's Royal Commission on defence and veteran suicide, on the high-risk window from the moment someone knows they will leave military service to 12 to 18 months after they leave.

At Paper Kite, Dana developed Navigating Human, a life lens program across eight areas of life, such as fitness, sleep and nutrition, in which mentors who have come through their own challenges help people see which parts of life are working and which are not.

View profile →

Book Dana Gambrill for your show

Request an interview →