Equipping non-providers for battlefield mental health support: An assessment of the BH GEAR training.

Abstract

Due to the scarcity of mental health providers and anticipated changes in operational environments, non-mental health providers need to play a larger role in preventing, identifying, and managing mental health concerns. The six-hour interactive Battlefield Health Guidelines for mEdic Assessment and Response (BH GEAR) Training for Mental Health was tested in active-duty service members (SMs) from October 2022 through April 2024 prior to deployment. The training taught how to conduct mental health assessments, identify signs and symptoms, provide interventions to prevent and manage concerns, and how to determine if medical evacuation for mental health was needed. Participants completed pre- and post-training, mid-deployment (n = 100) and post-deployment (n = 106) surveys assessing personal, unit level and deployment characteristics, helpfulness of the trained skills and use of skills. Around two-thirds indicated the trained skills were moderately or very helpful during deployment. Mental health knowledge and confidence using the skills remained significantly elevated at mid-deployment as compared to pre-training. Participants utilized all of the skills with more SMs during deployment compared to pre-training. Religious affairs participants, those who had more mental health experience, and those reporting higher operational tempo and communication problems with home during deployment utilized the skills with a greater number of SMs, while those reporting higher unit morale used the skills with fewer SMs. This newly developed training is a mechanism to educate non-provider SMs on critical mental health material so that they will be better prepared to prevent and address mental health concerns in operational environments of the future.