Shrinks on the ground

The Navy and Marine Corps' Operational Stress Control and Readiness (OSCAR) program is featured in a Military Times article by Gidget Fuentes.

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — When it returns to Iraq this winter, I Marine Expeditionary Force will bring more front-line help for its combat forces in the form of specialized mental health support teams.

These Operational Stress Control and Readiness — OSCAR — teams will deploy with a Navy psychiatrist or psychologist; hospital corpsmen trained as psychiatry technicians, currently on loan from hospitals and clinics; and perhaps a chaplain and social worker from the Navy.

OSCAR teams are part of a pilot program underway this year to establish permanently staffed teams that train and deploy overseas with each regiment and group, officials said. A request for those teams, issued by top operational commanders in a universal needs statement, is working its way through the Corps and Navy, which provides the medical and religious personnel.
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With mental help support on the front lines, medical officials expect to see fewer Marines and sailors suffering from stress-related mental health issues who must be pulled from their units and evacuated out of the country. “The most important social support that they have is their squad or their unit,” Oliver noted.

Comment: I'm proud to say that I served as a Marine Corps Division Psychiatrist for three years and participated in the development of OSCAR. When I came on board in 2005 the Marine Corps only had 6 mental health billets. The urgent need request was for well over a hundred mental health staff including officers and enlisted personnel. It makes so much sense to embed mental health personnel in infantry units and shifting clinical services from the military hospital to in-theatre and in-garrison. I loved my time with the Marine Corps and I hope this program continues to grow to fruition.

Reference: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/12/marine_mef_stress_071224/

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