Designing a pre-deployment resilience building programme for military peacekeeping personnel. A Delphi technique study with military and civilian subject matter experts

Abstract: Military personnel are at increased risk of being exposed to potentially traumatic events when compared to the general population. Resilience is a protective against potentially traumatic events, whereby higher resilience moderates the frequency and severity of depression, psychological trauma, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Many psychological interventions have been developed to increase military personnels' resilience however there exist significant debate as to the effectiveness and rigor of many existing programmes. This study involved recruiting a panel of Irish military experts and a cohort of international subject matter experts, ranging in expertise in military psychology, intervention design and civilian resilience programme delivery. The aim of this study was to develop a framework from which to design a novel resilience-building programme for the Irish Defence Forces. The study took place over three rounds, beginning with an open-ended data generation questionnaire and moving through two rounds where we achieved consensus on a range of programme design points. Recommendations include a multimethod approach to building resilience (blend of CBT, Mindfulness etc), taking place in person, and over the course of several sessions. While this research has an Irish focus, the results are generalizable to other militaries & emergency services sectors.

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