Integrative health care and U.S. military personnel, veterans, and their families

NCCIH’s 2017 spring event schedule.

This spring, as part of a commitment to expanding research and resources on health issues that affect our military, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, part of the National Institutes of Health, is hosting a series of events on integrative health and U.S. military personnel, veterans, and their families.

“Many people in these populations turn to complementary and integrative health approaches to enhance the options for the management of issues such as pain and stress,” said Josephine P. Briggs, M.D., Director, NCCIH. “These events will provide resources and information on some complementary and integrative health practices being studied for these individuals.”

The 2017 spring event schedule includes lectures at NIH as well as Facebook Live events:

March 27, 2017

10:00 a.m. ET: Presentation, “Promoting Resilience in Military Families: After Deployment, Adaptive Parenting Tools,” by Dr. Abigail Gewirtz*
Lipsett Amphitheater, Building 10, NIH main campus
2:00 p.m. ET: Facebook Live Q&A Session with Dr. Gewirtz(link is external)
About the Presentation: The After Deployment, Adaptive Parenting Tools (ADAPT) program is the first of its kind focused on post-deployment parenting practices in military families. Developed in response to the effects of a parent’s deployment on children, the ADAPT program incorporates emotion socialization techniques including yoga, mindfulness meditation, and emotion coaching. Dr. Gewirtz will share the rationale for incorporating mindfulness approaches into a parenting program, walk through the goals and content of the ADAPT program’s different formats, and discuss two NIH-funded randomized trials evaluating program outcomes.
About the Speaker: Abigail Gewirtz, Ph.D., L.P., director of the Institute for Translational Research in Children’s Mental Health and the John and Nancy Lindahl Leadership Professor in the Department of Family Social Science and Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota.

April 10, 2017

10:00 a.m. ET: Presentation, “Pain and Opioid Management in Veterans: Evidence, Lessons Learned, and Future Directions in the Use of Collaborative and Integrated Care Approaches,” by Dr. Karen Seal*
Lipsett Amphitheater, Building 10, NIH main campus
2:00 p.m. ET: Facebook Live Q&A Session with Dr. Seal(link is external)
About the Presentation: The overall goal of the OPTI study (Options for Pain Treatment Interventions) is to pilot test a novel collaborative care intervention to improve pain, opioid safety, and use of nonpharmacologic pain management strategies in veterans in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) primary care. Dr. Seal will discuss the ongoing pilot randomized controlled trial among 100 veterans in VA primary care with chronic pain and high-risk prescription opioid use. She will focus on a scripted primary care-based intervention that involves the use of Shared Decision-Making and “SMART” goal planning to develop a multi-modal Pain Care Plan that aligns with veterans’ personal values and goals for health and wellness. Dr. Seal will also explore how this trial and other similar studies are laying the groundwork for a generation of new research investigating biopsychosocial, nonpharmacologic care for veterans with chronic pain.
About the Speaker: Karen Seal, M.D., M.P.H., professor in the Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, and director of the Integrated Pain Team and the Integrated Care Clinic for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.

April 25, 2017

1:00 p.m. ET: Facebook Live Q&A Session on “Mind and Body Approaches and Military Personnel and Their Families,” with Dr. Eric Schoomaker and Dr. Chester “Trip” Buckenmaier
About the Q&A: Drs. Schoomaker and Buckenmaier will discuss mind and body approaches, such as meditation, yoga, and relaxation techniques for pain, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and insomnia in the military population.
About the Speakers: Both from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences(link is external) in Bethesda, Maryland: Eric Schoomaker, M.D., Ph.D., former U.S. Army Lieutenant General who served as the 42nd Surgeon General of the U.S. Army and Commanding General, is professor and vice-chair for leadership, centers, and programs; and Chester Buckenmaier, III, M.D., Colonel, U.S. Army (retired), is professor, program director, principal investigator at the Defense & Veterans Center for Integrative Pain Management.

About the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH): NCCIH’s mission is to define, through rigorous scientific investigation, the usefulness and safety of complementary and integrative health approaches and their roles in improving health and health care. For additional information, call NCCIH’s Clearinghouse toll free at 1-888-644-6226, or visit the NCCIH Web site at nccih.nih.gov. Follow us on Twitter(link is external), Facebook(link is external), and YouTube.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

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