Training – Civilian Health and Behavioral Health Professionals in Every Community

This is not a DoD or VA problem but a Community Health Problem to solve.  To prepare civilian providers to address post deployment issues facing OIF/OEF/OND veterans and their families, CSSP partnered with Area Health Education Centers and medical providers from the Department of Veterans Affairs, United States Navy and United States Public Health Service to create onsite and online courses through the North Carolina Area Health Education Center (AHEC) and their AHEC Connect portal. Nearly 4000 providers received these day long trainings and roughly 25,000 providers completed roughly 50,000 online trainings including providers from all 50 States and over one third of US Counties.

PTSD and TBI – “Treating the Invisible Wounds of War” was offered as onsite training nationally; the online course was combined, updated and re-launched in June 2011.  It is also available in Spanish.

Women Returning from Combat Provider Training – “Issues of Women Returning from Combat” full-day workshops were delivered in 2010 and available online, helping civilian providers understand the health/mental health concerns of women veterans within the context of military culture, gender-specific roles, available support resources and effective treatments. 

CSSP Family Training – “Issues Effecting Families During Military Deployments”.  The trainings were conducted in each of the other 9 NC AHEC regions in 2010-2011 and available as an online course.

Primary Care – “Treating the Invisible Wounds of War: A Primary Care Approach”, launched online in June 2011, focuses on education/training and practice improvement for family physicians, with an explicit backup and referral plan to help address the unmet need for mental health assessment and care among returning Servicemembers

Primary Care – “Taking a Military History”.  This training was created in partnership with the VA and Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina to train providers on how to document a Veteran patients military medical history.

Optometrists – “Recognizing the Signs of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury During Routine Eye Examinations”, launched online in September 2011, focuses on head traumas common to the military population and is designed to give Optometrists the tools to recognize the clinical signs that can identify veterans at risk for untreated head trauma.

“Employee Assistance Professionals and Military-to-Workplace Transitions” developed under a grant from Bristol-Myers Squibb to train Employee Assistance Professionals to better respond to the needs of veteran employees.

PTSD/TBI Tool Kits – CSSP, in partnership with NC AHEC and VA developed trainings Tool Kits on PTSD and TBI. 

Training Toolkit – “Connecting the Faith Community and Behavioral Health Professionals to Help Service Members and Their Families”adapted from materials developed by CSSP and the Faith community