Battlemind Prepares Soldiers

[unhappycamper]

Battlemind Prepares Soldiers
Army News Service | Susan Huseman | January 04, 2008

STUTTGART, Germany - Today, every Soldier headed to Iraq and Afghanistan receives Battlemind training, but few know the science behind it.

Consequently, Dr. Amy Adler, a senior research psychologist with the U.S. Army Medical Research Unit-Europe, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, in Heidelberg, Germany, visited Patch Barracks, breaking down the program, which is a system of support and intervention.

Not every Soldier who deploys downrange is at risk for mental health problems, she said. The main risk factor is the level of combat experienced, Dr. Adler explained to her audience, consisting predominantly 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," Dr. Adler said. "How do you develop a mental health training of some sort that's going to prevent that eventual increase over time?"


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,159337,00.html