Thursday, January 03, 2008

'Battlemind' Prepares Soldiers for Combat, Returning Home

By Susan Huseman
Special to American Forces Press Service

Jan. 3, 2008 - Every soldier headed to Iraq and Afghanistan receives "Battlemind" training designed to help them deal with
combat experiences, but few know the science behind the program. Consequently, Dr. Amy Adler, a senior research psychologist with the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research's U.S. Army Medical Research Unit Europe, in Heidelberg, Germany, visited Patch Barracks here, breaking down the program, which is a system of support and intervention.

The Battlemind system includes separate pre-deployment training modules for soldiers, unit leaders, health care providers and spouses. Psychological debriefings are given in theater and upon redeployment. There are also a post-deployment module for spouses and several post-deployment modules for soldiers.

Not every soldier who deploys is at risk for mental health problems; the main risk factor is the level of combat experienced, Adler explained to her audience of medical, mental health and family support professionals.

Army studies show the greater the
combat exposure a soldier encounters, the greater the risk for mental health problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anger and relationship problems. When soldiers first return home, they may not notice any problems; sometimes it takes a few months for problems to develop.

For those in the medical community, "our challenge was how to develop interventions that can get at all these things," the doctor recalled. "How do you develop a mental health training of some sort that's going to prevent that eventual increase over time?

"We realized we needed to develop some kind of alternative," Adler continued. "There was no existing mental health training that made sense for these sets of questions. It's not like there was something off the shelf in civilian literature that would begin to address this."

Post-deployment health briefings didn't specifically target soldiers going into combat and coming back with adjustment challenges, so researchers at the Walter Reed
Army Institute of Research began to define their objectives for a mental health training program. Adler said the team needed to develop something that was "going to make sense for different phases of the deployment cycle."

"For example," she said, "the existing mental health brief (at the time) was the same for pre- and post-deployment. That doesn't make sense. The challenges are different."

"Secondly," she continued, "we wanted to make sure it was integrated. If we tell somebody something at (pre-(deployment), we want to make sure whatever theme we're going for or concept we're trying to communicate, it's going to connect with the same information that we're going to talk about at (post-deployment)."

The result? Battlemind, a term used to describe combat readiness that the researchers felt was appropriate for the training they were designing. Adler called it a soldier's inner strength to face fear and adversity in combat with courage, labeling it "resiliency."

The Battlemind system is built on findings from surveys and interviews given to soldiers and Marines returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, many of the researchers themselves have deployed.

The research team gathered soldiers' accounts of specific events and incidents, turning them into teaching tools that warriors can relate to. "Some of these stories tell more than any briefing ever could," Adler said.

The first Battlemind product was a mental health post-deployment briefing. It quickly became a training system supporting soldiers and families across the seven phases of the deployment cycle.

As part of her presentation here, Adler discussed various challenges in developing a relevant pre-deployment mental health briefing for soldiers.

"You have 45 minutes, maybe an hour, to tell soldiers, before they deploy to Iraq, something about mental health," she said. "What are you going to tell them? You don't want to sugarcoat it, but you don't want to teach them a whole lot of new information right at a time when they are focused on the task ahead of them."

The researchers first chose to identify the reality of
combat and deployment. It may sound rudimentary, but earlier research found that soldiers were not telling other soldiers what to expect. Soldiers didn't want to sound as if they were bragging, Adler said.

Pre-deployment Battlemind tells soldiers what they are likely to see, to hear, to think and to feel while deployed by describing the worst-case scenario.

For the post-deployment phase, Battlemind addresses safety concerns and relationship issues, normalizes combat-related mental health reactions and symptoms, and teaches soldiers when they should seek mental health support for themselves or for their buddies.

The researchers realized that this post-deployment briefing, the original Battlemind, was not enough. The soldiers they talked to were raw, edgy and angry. Another training program, Battlemind II, was developed to be given three to six months into redeployment.

The system reemphasizes normal reactions and symptoms related to combat and "Battlemind checks," which are signs that indicate mental health support is needed.

"If you're still carrying a weapon around with you during the three- to six-month post-deployment phase, ... if you're still looking around for snipers, if your sleep is still really messed up, these might be signs that your transition is not going smoothly," she explained. "These are signs that you need to get help."

(Susan Huseman serves in the
U.S. Army Garrison Stuttgart Public Affairs Office.)

Sailor Missing from WWII is Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing from World War II, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

He is Seaman 1st Class General P. Douglas, U.S.
Navy, of Newcomb, Tenn. He will be buried Jan. 26 in Sneedville, Tenn.

On July 6, 1943, the light cruiser "USS Helena"was struck by torpedoes fired by Japanese destroyers off the coast of Kolombangara Island, Solomon Islands, in what would become known as the Battle of the Kula Gulf. More than 700 servicemen were rescued, but Douglas was one of more than 150 servicemen who were missing as the ship sunk.

In June 2006, a resident of Ranongga Island, Solomon Islands, notified U.S. officials that he exhumed human remains and Douglas' dog tag that he found eroding out of the ground near a trail by his village. The officials contacted the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) who subsequently traveled to Ranongga Island to examine the burial location where they verified that no additional remains were present.

Among dental records, other
forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA in the identification of the remains.

For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO Web site at www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call (703) 699-1169.

America Supports You: Calendar Provides Troop-Support Ideas

American Forces Press Service

Jan. 3, 2008 - New Year's resolutions frequently include good intentions, such as joining a gym, calling parents or organizing closets. But through its America Supports You program, the Defense Department is helping Americans resolve to support the nation's servicemembers throughout 2008. America Supports You is a DoD program that connects citizens and corporations with
military personnel and their families serving at home and abroad. It's ringing in 2008 with a 12-month calendar suggesting ways to support the nation's military men and women and their families each month.

"Remembering the troops at a time when people are already setting goals will help keep the nation's servicemen and women in the forefront of our minds throughout the year," said Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense for public liaison and internal communications.

The calendar, which can be downloaded into Outlook or iCal calendars, is available on AmericaSupportsYou.mil. The site not only offers ideas on how individuals can support the troops, but also contains information about troop-support groups in their area.

Some suggestions found on the calendar include sending Valentine's Day cards to troops serving overseas during February or lending a helping hand to
military families during April, the Month of the Military Child.

When summer rolls around with swim lessons, camp dates and family vacations, the June calendar includes a reminder to donate frequent-flier miles to servicemembers and their families who so often are separated. September brings the opportunity to join in or plan a local America Supports You Freedom Walk to commemorate victims of the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks and to honor veterans, past and present.

The calendar also includes ways to honor servicemembers on Memorial Day and Veterans Day.

"There are so many ways to show the
military men and women we support them and the work they do," Barber said. "I hope people nationwide will take the time to remember the troops when setting their New Year's goals and that they find the reminders in the calendar helpful in achieving them."

For more information about the calendar, visit AmericaSupportsYou.mil and click on the New Year's Resolution icon.