Integrated Care Programs Designed to Help Soldiers

Army Col. Charles C. Engel, MD, MPH, was one of four speakers at a workshop titled Real World Implementation of Integrated Care Programs presented at the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting, May 5-9, 2012.

Here, Dr Engel briefly describes improvements being made in the quality of care for post-deployed military personnel seeking mental health services. “RESPECT-Mil,” short for Re-Engineering Systems of Primary Care Treatment in the Military, is a US Army collaborative care program located in more than 70 primary care clinics. A treatment model for soldiers returning from Iraq, Afghanistan, and other areas of conflict, “RESPECT-Mil” reaches out to soldiers affected by anxiety, PTSD, and depression. It is one of a growing number of programs designed to expand treatment options to soldiers and to prepare clinicians to help this specific population.

Dr Engel is Director of the Deployment Health Clinical Center and Associate Chair in the Department of Psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. With the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense, he has worked to develop and implement guidelines for depression, PTSD, post-deployment health evaluation, and medically unexplained physical symptoms.