Over the past decade, there has been an increasing interest in supporting Warfighter resilience, readiness, well-being, and performance. Although an emphasis on mental health endures, Warfighter readiness can be defined by more than just the absence of pathology. Psychological service delivery must evolve to include optimizing Service Member health and performance of mission essential tasks and preserving mission readiness, and move beyond the simple goal of ameliorating psychological illness. Approaches to alleviating pathology and supporting optimal performance have often been viewed as completely independent. While the distinctions have been helpful in identifying boundaries for ethical practice, it has also created divides in how to think about embracing the full spectrum of interventions to advance the well-being and performance capabilities for all Service Members.
This presentation begins by introducing the science of performance psychology, which includes specific mental skills needed to enhance discrete performances across a broad range of tasks, from marksmanship, recovery from injury, execution of physical and tactical skills to decision-making and navigating complex environments, and more generalized skills to support quality of life and overall well-being for Service Members and their families. Next, we will explore how a performance-oriented approach may help Service Members promote mental health and enable optimal performance while simultaneously decreasing the stigma associated with seeking and receiving psychological support. The final part of the presentation will provide tools to better enable medical professionals to leverage the full spectrum of human performance optimization (HPO) and Total Force Fitness (TFF), preserve resources and increase engagement in mental health protective behaviors, and explore how to better organize and arrange the breadth of opportunities for supporting psychological health and readiness in our force.
For a brief summary of the presentation, check out the Bottom Line, Up Front (B.L.U.F.) below!
Learning Objectives:
After this webinar, participants will be able to:
- Apply knowledge of the HPO spectrum and the full continuum of resources available to support psychological health and readiness.
- Evaluate opportunities where a performance-focused, skill-building strategies can complement more traditional behavioral and mental health approaches to supporting readiness.
- Utilize a tool to help providers think about how to access, refer, and leverage the full spectrum of resources available to support service members.