In October 2009, the Departments of Defense (DoD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) conducted a joint Mental Health Summit that brought together behavioral health experts and leaders from both departments with the goal of developing a strategy that would facilitate coordination for the delivery of mental health services.
CDP's Dr. Augusto Ruiz talks with Dr. Marvin Podd, Navy Internship Training Director at Walter Reed National Medical Center. In this clip they discuss some of Dr. Podd's best takeaways from his many years at Walter Reed.
I recently sat down with Dr. Alan Peterson, Consortium Director of STRONG STAR (South Texas Research Organizational Network Guiding Studies on Trauma and Resilience), a multi-disciplinary, multi-site research consortium funded by the DoD and VA, to learn a little bit more about their current research projects. Dr. Peterson is a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, a board-certified clinical health psychologist, and proposed STRONG STAR over five years ago to address the dearth of military-specific trauma research.
In a 2011 research article by Kent Drescher, et al titled “An Exploration of the Viability and Usefulness of the Construct of Moral Injury in War Veterans,” there was universal agreement among the subject matter experts interviewed that the concept of “moral injury” is needed to describe and discuss the complex range of consequences of combat. Moral injury arises when a Service member cannot reconcile what he or she has done or experienced in war with his worldview of him or herself prior to war. Commonly this involves killing, especially of non-combatants, often women or children.
Last Friday, 18 October, the country lost a strong champion of Service members, Veterans and their families when Congressman Charles William “Bill” Young (R, FL) passed away at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD. Through nearly 21 terms as a Representative of the people of Florida, C.W. “Bill” Young was a passionate advocate of the needs and welfare of Service members and Veterans.