Yellow Ribbon Re-integration Program
When National Guard/Reserve soldiers return home from an overseas deployment, they are required to attend a post-deployment reintegration training program along with their family members. This program is termed the Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program (YRRP), formally instituted by Congress in 2008.
Soldiers and their family members attending these universal prevention programs learn about:
Post deployment reintegration issues (depression, PTSD, substance abuse, family relationship and communication issues)
Benefits (education, employment, medical, mental health)
Resources (VA, Missouri Veterans Commission, Missouri National Guard Family Programs and Chaplain Services, Military OneSource, Military & Family Life Consultants, etc.)
National Guard/Reserve soldiers are distinct from the regular active duty military because they generally complete military training only one weekend a month, have regular civilian jobs, and live in the community the rest of the time. However, the federal government may mobilize and deploy these soldiers overseas for a period of a year or more for national defense or peacekeeping missions. After their one-year deployment, the soldiers must then reintegrate into home life with their family and into their civilian lives and jobs. Reintegration can be difficult.
With the Iraq and Afghanistan wars lingering nearly a decade, the National Guard is playing ever more important roles in these ongoing military missions. Consequently, the psychological casualties of deployment have had a significant impact on these soldiers, their families, and their communities.
The overall objectives of this series of studies are to:
evaluate the role and potential of the Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program (YRRP) as a promising platform for identifying the mental health and associated reintegration service needs of soldiers and their families;
examine the YRRP referral mechanisms; and
ultimately improve the provision of evidence-based counseling and treatment for National Guard soldiers and their family members in need.
PILOT PHASE AIMS
Demonstrate the short-term positive effect of YRRP participation
Establish YRRP as a promising platform for triage to needed services
Identify YRRP components and contexts that enhance participant satisfaction, self-efficacy, help-seeking, and referral to evidence-based counseling and treatment.
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS
Rumi Kato Price, PhD, MPE
Enola K. Proctor, PhD
FUNDING SOURCES TO DATE
Washington University’s Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences (ICTS, Just-in-time core use)
Washington University’s Brown School
Center for Mental Health Services Research (CMHSR) at Washington University’s Brown School
Washington University’s Department of Psychiatry discretionary funds
TIMEFRAME
Started in April 2009
COLLABORATORS
Monica M. Matthieu, PhD, LCSW
William True, PhD
Ken Schechtman, PhD
LTC K. Llewellyn McGhee, D.Min.
LTC Regina Kilmer
Jay M. McDonald, MD
Missouri National Guard
Missouri Military and Veterans Health (MMV) Consortium
CONTACT
Rumi Kato Price, PhD, MPE or Gregory Widner
314-286-2223