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The Process of Developing a Unit-Based Army Resilience Program

  • Military Mental Health (E Meyer II, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

We review military doctrine, military public health data, medical literature, and educational literature with the intent of condensing key precepts into a succinct, pragmatic description of the essential steps for leaders looking to build a resilience program to provide secondary prevention services.

Recent Findings

Although there continues to be a shortage of high-level evidence in support of specific preventive programs, there are numerous large-scale reviews of prevention and health promotion efforts. When combined with population-specific analyses, several essential concepts emerge as most relevant for smaller-scale prevention programs.

Summary

The key tenets that program leaders should embrace to optimize program effectiveness include utilization of an instructional design approach, focus on evidence-based practices, and teaching resilience skills in order to decrease risk factors and increase protective factors for improved mental health outcomes.

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The views expressed in this presentation are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense or the US Government.

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Dragonetti, J., Gifford, T. & Yang, M. The Process of Developing a Unit-Based Army Resilience Program. Curr Psychiatry Rep 22, 48 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-020-01169-w

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