The Process of Developing a Unit-Based Army Resilience Program

Purpose of ReviewWe review military doctrine, military public health data, medical literature, and educational literature with the intent of condensing key precepts into a succinct, pragmatic description of the essential steps for leaders looking to build a resilience program to provide secondary prevention services.Recent FindingsAlthough there continues to be a shortage of high-level evidence in support of specific preventive programs, there are numerous large-scale reviews of prevention and health promotion efforts. When combined with population-specific analyses, several essential concepts emerge as most relevant for smaller-scale prevention programs.SummaryThe key tenets that program leaders should embrace to optimize program effectiveness include utilization of an instructional design approach, focus on evidence-based practices, and teaching resilience skills in order to decrease risk factors and increase protective factors for improved mental health outcomes.