Military medicine
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Multi-domain operational combat environments will likely restrict key components of current behavioral health (BH) service delivery models. Combat teams in far-forward outposts or extended missions may need to rely on their own internal assets to manage combat and operational stress reactions for extended periods of time. As such, combat medics are expected to take on additional responsibilities as providers of BH support for isolated teams. As they receive limited BH training, medics require additional training to sufficiently respond to combat and operational stress reactions in their assigned teams. This study provided combat medics with a BH training and a mobile application-based support tool that would assist them in identifying and responding to BH concerns in their soldiers. The current analysis examines pre- to post-training changes in attitudes related to utilizing BH skills. ⋯ A larger proportion of medics believed it was within their scope of work and felt confident in assessing BH problems, and a smaller proportion believed it is within their scope of work and felt confident in applying interventions. The training increased most medics' confidence to administer interventions for BH and team communication issues. Similar training programs can help medics serve as support for a wide variety of circumstances when the brigade's mental health teams are inaccessible. Additionally, the Medic AIRE app expanded the ability to evaluate and provide interventions without extensive training in treatment modalities or BH conditions. This concept shows promise for providing medics with actionable tools when training time is limited such as during preparation for extended deployments.
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The DoD Cholinesterase Monitoring Program and Cholinesterase Reference Laboratory have safeguarded U. S. government employees in chemical defense for over five decades. Considering Russia's potential deployment of chemical warfare nerve agents in Ukraine, it is critical to maintain a robust cholinesterase testing program and its efficiency presently and in future.
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Civilians constitute a significant wartime target, and trauma accounts for most of their injuries. Air raid sirens have long been used to alert civilians of incoming attacks and have since expanded to warn from natural disasters. Sirens are known to cause significant emotional distress and physiological changes. Injuries inflicted from trauma while moving for shelter have yet to be described in the medical literature. ⋯ This study implies that injuries while moving for shelter were a prevalent cause of physical injury to Israeli civilians during the Israel-Gaza 2021 conflict. Warning sirens injuries should be given appropriate attention-from prevention by directed media campaigns to post-conflict reimbursement.
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Observational Study
Surgical Experiences From a French Forward Surgical Team on Board of the Landing Helicopter Deck MISTRAL.
Onboard surface ships like destroyers and frigates, there is ROLE 1, whereas on a three-landing helicopter deck (LHD) and aircraft carrier, there is ROLE 2, with a surgical team. At sea, evacuation takes more time than on any other theater of operation. It also costs more money, so we wanted to analyze how many patients have been maintained onboard, thanks to ROLE 2. Moreover, we wanted to analyze the surgical activities on the LHD MISTRAL ROLE 2. ⋯ We have shown that using ROLE 2 aboard the LHD MISTRAL decreases the use of Medical Evacuation. It also helps to perform surgery under better conditions for our sailors. Doing everything to keep sailors onboard seems to be an important point.
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Resilient prescribing is an approach to the use of psychotropics that considers the significance of the treatment beyond the direct effects of the medication. Within this strengths-based approach, those who are prescribed medications must retain a sense of self-efficacy, understand the importance of their own actions in their recovery, have reasonable expectations of what a medication can and cannot do, and avoid the adoption of a disempowering illness identity. ⋯ In this manuscript, we explore these principles with consideration for how they may be applied in deployed settings where the ability of service members to recover from behavioral health concerns is mission critical. These principles offer a roadmap to prescribing that builds upon the service members' own strengths and has the potential to amplify the positive impacts of mental health treatment.