Road to Mental Readiness (R2MR) – Not just deployment training!

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A Road to Mental Readiness (R2MR) instructor gives a lesson on the mental health continuum to a class of Canadian Army members.

January 27, 2025 - Defence Stories

Estimated read time - 2:30

In today's fast -paced environment, Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members can maximize their performance and enhance their resilience by learning, developing, and consistently applying the mental health and performance skills taught during the R2MR training offered by the organization.

What is R2MR?

The R2MR program is a mental health and performance training program developed for the CAF and the Department of National Defence. The objectives of R2MR are to enhance well-being and performance while ensuring that CAF personnel can recognize early indicators of distress and access appropriate support, resources, and information. R2MR aims to prepare military members for the unique demands of military service, ultimately ensuring long-term operational readiness.

Launched in 2008, R2MR has grown significantly in response to the evolving organizational and operational context. R2MR training now encompasses more than 50 distinct training courses that address the various challenges during a military member's career—from recruit training to subsequent leadership courses, initial occupation training, and pre- and post-deployment training. Each course is specifically tailored, recognizing the fact that different occupations and environments have unique challenges and requirements. For example, the R2MR training delivered to those working in the Submariner community includes different skills and strategies from that provided to Military Police personnel or Air Traffic Controllers.

How are the courses developed?

The program's training packages are developed using the latest published research on performance, resilience, stress management, and mental health. Additionally, R2MR collaborates with NATO partners and other allies to share best practices and ensure the program remains at the forefront of military mental health training. This collaboration has helped the program become a leader in its field, with elements of R2MR being adopted by military and civilian organizations in Canada and internationally.

What are R2MR's core concepts?

Some of the core R2MR concepts include: understanding the performance and wellbeing cycle, the characteristics of stress, the impact of stress on performance, mental performance skills such as The Big Four, the role of recovery in the optimized performance cycle, self-monitoring, setback management and self-care actions, and treatment resources. R2MR also offers a host of leadership core concepts such as managing leadership stress, leader actions throughout the optimized performance cycle, mental skills training, and many more.

In summary, the R2MR Program has played a crucial role in enhancing the mental health and performance of CAF personnel. Over the years, it has grown to become an adaptable, evidence-based initiative that addresses the unique challenges faced by military members. Research and program evaluation indicate that R2MR has been effective in increasing mental health literacy as well as knowledge of mental skills and coping strategies and improving attitudes towards care-seeking including stigma reduction. External researchers and program evaluation staff actively and routinely measure immediate, intermediate, and longer-term outcomes of the program.