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Psychological Health Program

Overview

The Psychological Health Program was designed to address the unique challenges that National Guard members face. Its mission is to support the psychological fitness of Guard members and their families for operational readiness. Whether you’re dealing with stress, work or family issues, the Psychological Health Program can help.

Psychological Health Program Lookup

The Psychological Health Program supports National Guard members and their families with any psychological health need. Psychological health directors in each state are also able to respond to training requests and critical incidents, and provide unit briefings and consultations.

Use the lookup function below to type in your state and search for the Psychological Health Program near you.

About the Psychological Health Program

The Psychological Health Program aims to help National Guard members readjust to civilian life by managing professional services and overseeing their mental health needs. The program also supports National Guard senior management on state-specific mental health needs, helps address issues with health care and provides National Guard-oriented mental health training throughout the deployment cycle.

Services are tailored to individual needs and include assessment, referral and resource identification. Services that address longer term or more complex problems will also receive support through the appropriate health care provider.

Challenges addressed

The Psychological Health Program addresses challenges unique to National Guard members and their families, such as living far from military treatment facilities. Most Guard members train once a month in a small unit that does not have embedded mental health workers and must rely on community resources to assist them in their readjustment.

All care is received through TRICARE, Veterans Health Administration and private health insurance through a Guard member’s or spouse’s civilian employer.

Your Psychological Health Program questions, answered

Get answers to questions about the Psychological Health Program.

The National Guard Bureau recognizes the unique pressures that service members and their families experience, especially given the need for service members to function at their highest level physically and emotionally. For this reason, the National Guard strives to be relevant, ready and accessible to the National Guard community by:

  • Providing help to address a full range of personal, emotional and behavioral problems as a result of deployment and any other stressors.
  • Supporting individuals for personal readiness and assisting with those who experience traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.
  • Ensuring confidentiality, privacy compliance with state and federal laws and guidelines.
  • Maintaining and improving National Guard member productivity.
  • Ensuring the Psychological Health Program is part of a comprehensive transition assistance network.

The directors of Psychological Health in each state are available to help you with any problem that may be affecting your emotional or behavioral life. They are also able to respond to training requests and critical incidents, as well as provide unit briefings, training and consultation.

National Guard members and their families can work with their state or territory director of Psychological Health who will assist in the coordination and management of any psychological health need. In most cases, they will assess and refer you to a local, qualified counselor or other mental health resource within a reasonable distance from your home. The goal of the Psychological Health Program is to address your concerns in the quickest, least restrictive, most convenient, and least costly manner while strictly respecting your confidentiality.

Program services are easily accessible. Your state/territory director of Psychological Health is available to provide telephone consultation as well as face-to-face consultation. If you believe you or one of your family members might need assistance, please do not hesitate to call the Military Crisis Line.

The services of the DPH are confidential and provided free of charge. At your initial appointment, you will be asked to provide basic demographic information, military history and details regarding the concern for which you are seeking assistance. Once your DPH has completed your interview, a referral may be made to your local provider, and your DPH will be available to guide you through the whole process. We will do our best to help you with whatever challenges you’re experiencing. Let us know if you’re concerned at any point with the service.

Counseling support

Service members have access to a number of programs that support their well-being.

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This free and confidential program from the Defense Department provides specialized coaching and assistance to active-duty, National Guard and reserve members, veterans and retirees who need mental health care during a transition, such as returning from deployment or preparing to leave military service.

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Over 300 Veterans Centers provide free and confidential counseling services to National Guard members and their families during agreed-upon drill weekends, annual training and other training events.

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The Military and Family Life Counseling Program provides non-medical counseling to service members, their families and survivors. Trained to work with the military community, military and family life counselors deliver valuable face-to-face counseling services, briefings and presentations to the military community both on and off the installation.

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Military OneSource counselors are available for free, short-term, confidential non-medical counseling services for a wide range of issues, including relationship conflicts, stress management, coping with loss and managing deployments. Sessions can take place in person, over the phone or via secure video or online chat.

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