On December 8th, 2015, Dictionary.com announced that the Word of the Year was Identity, partly because of the expanding conversations about gender identity. The news stood out to me because 2015 was a year I learned a lot from working with transgender patients.
80%
The percentage of military personnel ("members of the Uniformed Services") who "exit their service before 20 years," thus leaving with no retirement benefits, according to a recent DOD report to Congress -- Blended Retirement System: Report to Congress – Implementation Plan for Modernizing the Military Retirement System (PDF). To ameliorate this situation, the Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act mandates that the Secretaries of the Uniformed Services submit to Congress "plans to implement a modernized retirement system effective January 1, 2018."
Welcome to this week’s edition of CDP News! We like to use this space to review recent happenings in and around the Center for Deployment Psychology, while also looking ahead to upcoming events. This was a busy week, as we had multiple events going on, both in the real and virtual worlds!
The CDP's weekly research update contains the latest news, journal articles and useful links from around the web. Some of this week's topics include:
● Psychological and Behavioral Interventions for Managing Insomnia Disorder: An Evidence Report for a Clinical Practice Guideline by the American College of Physicians.
● Occupational outcomes following mild traumatic brain injury in Canadian military personnel deployed in support of the mission in Afghanistan: a retrospective cohort study.
Recent events where patients covertly recorded behavioral health sessions has brought these chronic concerns to the forefront for many providers. Providers seem conflicted about where they stand on patients secretly recording sessions. But advancements in technology have enhanced the anxiety as people can now splice recordings in ways that misrepresent what actually happened. For some, these advancements lead to the belief that secret recording should be illegal. For others, it is yet another factor in their conflicted feelings and the struggle between patient and provider rights.