Photo By Staff Sgt. Kelly Carlton | Mr. Walter Clark, chief, behavioral health department, General Leonard Wood Army...... read more read more
FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. – Gen. Leonard Wood Army Community Hospital is focused on using a team-based approach to diagnose post-traumatic stress disorder to ensure recovery is an attainable result for soldiers in the 4th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade here.
Department of Defense now employs a five touch-point program to identify soldiers displaying symptoms of PTSD and who are returning from war, said Walter Clark, chief, behavior health department at GLWACH.
One of the first team stations in the five touch-points include the command screening which starts in the combat theater, said Clark. The in-theater screening is done to see if the soldier is experiencing adjustment issues, or other stressors that would make them green, amber or red, and then the team members on the installation command can begin to support each identified soldier.
“We have a 4th MEB fusion cell that consists of 13 providers, or representatives from the behavioral health department, and other supportive agencies such as Army Substance Abuse Program,” said Clark.
The fusion cell, or embedded behavior health concept, was modeled after a Fort Carson, Colo. initiative, said Clark.
“We don’t have multiple providers servicing the same soldier so when the fusion cell meets they know what soldier is higher risk that other soldiers, who may be demonstrating PTSD issues, and they are discussed, and treatment plans are formulated there,” Clark said.
“It really streamlines the communication and makes sure there is a focus on soldier care,” said Clark.
The fusion cell concept surfaced about two and half to three years ago when the providers started focusing on the five touch-points, tracking soldiers through the entire deployment cycle, and that’s also when the DoD really started putting the focus on standardizing evidence-based therapies for PTSD, or trauma presentations, said Clark.
Evidence-based interventions are the results of specific research conducted on certain treatments with people exhibiting PTSD type disorders, and have found the results to be very effective, therefore it is referred to as evidence-based care, said Dr. Kristina Burton, chief, adult outpatient behavioral health, GLWACH.
The metric that is pretty consistent across the Army, and this would apply to the 4th MEB, is anywhere from 11 to 14 percent of redeploying soldiers are diagnosed with PTSD, said Clark.
As with all programs a future exists and behavioral health is no different.
“A future goal is to reduce the stigma so that people do come in for treatment,” said Burton.
“A lot of soldiers, once they get help and they feel better they’re so open to letting other people know that, ‘hey this has helped me’, so that is another way they go out into the community and help the community, and help other people seek treatment,” said Burton.
“I think part of our future is to enhance our team approach with the 4th MEB and enlist commander investment,” said Clark.
According to Clark, the future of Army behavioral health may face challenges, but the current DoD budget is not one of them.
“From my perspective, we have no significant budget challenges, or anything of that nature in behavioral health when it comes to treating our soldiers,” said Clark.
“We’re building family system intervention into our offerings at this time, and beginning in January of this year, we added child and adolescent services here in the department,” said Clark. “We address not only the soldier but his entire family.”
The resources are present, and enhancing, to meet all the needs of the soldier, said Clark.
Burton says sometimes treatment is hard.
“Keeping the soldier invested while they’re here can be challenging,” said Burton, of challenges she experiences as part of the behavioral health team at GLWACH.
“In the room, we’re a team, and we both have to work to make it work,” said Burton.
Soldiers can assess with ‘self determination’ and schedule their own appointment, said Clark. Confidentiality for self-referred soldiers is protected by the provider team unless a person reaches a threshold that DoD has clearly defined for us that we need to let the commander know what is going on with that Soldier.
Members of the 4th MEB fusion cell are located in two places, said Clark. There is a behavioral health professional embedded in the brigade’s medical section, and the rest of the provider team is located in the hospital.
Most of the people we see do recover from PTSD, their symptoms improve, they get better, and they’re able to function in their lives, said Burton.
According to Burton, the advances in PTSD recovery efforts by the Army are a model for others in private practice.
“Once you have PTSD, that doesn’t mean you always have PTSD,” said Burton of the way ahead in recovery.
| Date Taken: | 03.06.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 03.08.2012 12:26 |
| Story ID: | 84927 |
| Location: | FORT LEONARD WOOD, MO, US |
| Web Views: | 122 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, PTSD providers ‘teaming’ with positive results, by SSG Kelly Carlton, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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