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Ready and Resilient Campaign: Deployment Health Assessments

Thursday July 11, 2013

What is it?

The Army’s Ready and Resilient Campaign strives to create a holistic, collaborative and coherent enterprise to increase individual and unit readiness and resilience. A critical tool in this effort is the Army’s Deployment Health Assessment Program (DHAP) consisting of a series of Deployment Health Assessments (DHAs) - comprehensive health screenings that provide leaders and commanders timely and accurate snapshots of individual Soldier and Department of Army (DA) Civilian behavioral and physical health.

To enable early intervention and better identify “at risk” and “high-risk” Soldiers, treat physical injuries, traumatic brain injury, substance abuse and PTSD - the DHAs are executed at the unit level and are completed within specific windows of time during the deployment cycle.

Each DHA begins with Resilience Training, followed by a self assessment completed online (DD Form) and a confidential, one-on-one conversation with a health care provider. The DHAs are completed in the following order:

  • • The Pre-DHA (DD 2795) is taken within 60 days of deployment
  • • The PDHA (DD 2796) is taken within 30 days before or after redeployment
  • • The PDHRA (DD 2900) is taken 90-180 days after redeployment

What has the Army done?

Since 2006, the Army Deployment Health Assessment Program (DHAP) has screened more than 1.2 million Soldiers and DA Civilians and continues to take steps to improve program execution. In 2013, the Army phased in revised Deployment Health Assessments (DHAs) to incorporate congressionally mandated behavioral questions, recent research findings and field suggestions. The Army has also taken preventive measures to reduce the ‘no-show’ rates and costs associated with execution. The Army is coordinating closely with unit commanders to forecast and plan upcoming readiness events, meet scheduling guidelines and cost criteria.

What continued efforts does the Army have in the future?

The Army National Guard, Army Reserve and Office of the Surgeon General (OTSG) will spearhead initiatives to increase PDHRA compliance across Warrior Transition Units (WTUs). The effort will establish new procedures for scheduling WTU PDHRA events and includes close coordination with WTU Program Managers.

Why is this important to the Army?

A healthy body and mind are essential to individual and unit readiness and resilience. The DHAP connects the military health care system directly to Soldiers and DA Civilians - providing critical opportunities to address and treat symptoms, physical injuries and behavioral concerns in a one-on-one confidential conversation with a healthcare provider.

Resources:

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