Session: Prevention Strategies for Returning to Garrison Life (Society for Prevention Research 21st Annual Meeting)

With the increase in the number of military members returning from combat zones, many communities are seeking guidance on how to promote psychological health well-being, adjusting to garrison life, and prevent family violence particularly for those who had multiple deployments and are experiencing PTSD.  The Department of Defense (DoD) has invested heavily in developing resilience programs, identified a recovery support model, and promoted family violence prevention programs.   However, psychological health outcomes such as suicide, posttraumatic stress disorder, intimate partner violence, and substance abuse remain problematic.  This symposium will address a recovery support model proposed by the Defense Centers of Excellence, stigma and help-seeking behaviors, and intimate partner violence when co-occurring with PTSD.

Encouraging service members to seek help before mental health issues become problems is one way the Services enhance resilience.  Since stigma remains a barrier to help-seeking among service members, the Services have developed and implemented several large scale initiatives to address stigma and increase help-seeking and ultimately impact affect a cultural shift to one that encourages help-seeking behaviors.

A recovery support model, including an overview of the six main players and their impact on an individual’s path to recovery, is proposed and will be presented.  Three themes regarding recovery support are described throughout the literature. Some regard recovery support as a collaborative process, characterized by the involvement of the patient, family, clinical staff, peers, command or employer and community.  This presentation will shed light on the importance of engaged stakeholders who collaborate throughout the continuum of care in the military and civilian healthcare settings to produce a patient-centered recovery support infrastructure.

Many service members have experienced more frequent and longer deployments as well as shortened dwell times. With the increase in the number of military members returning from service in combat zones, many communities need guidance on how to address the co-occurrence of combat-related PTSD and intimate partner violence. An effective prevention approach will require that all intervening service providers are cross-trained on these issues and that communication and coordination among them are initiated and implemented DoD-wide.

These presentations will attempt to identify the common threads that impact prevention efforts in improving recovery support and help-seeking behaviors and eliminating family violence.