Basic Training in Mindfulness Techniques
From Mindful Direct:
According to a recent Institute of Medicine report, mental health issues among the veteran population are rising. The number of active-duty service members diagnosed with a psychological condition has increased by over 60 percent between 2001 and 2011. An estimated 22 veterans commit suicide each day.
An increasing number of veterans are turning to mindfulness to cope with combat-related PTSD. And if Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) has anything to say about it, mindfulness will be offered as a treatment option to every U.S. veteran.
"There's a chance that a lot of these men and woman will kill themselves, and, to me, that's unacceptable," says Ryan. Ryan helped introduce a bill that would support bringing integrative health to Veterans Affairs and mindfulness techniques into the military as part of basic training, making members of the military "more proficient in how to deal with trauma"—a concept investigated recently by research on Marines and mindfulness.
[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0Nk8VX7dDE&w=640&h=480]
See also: "Jennifer Michael Hecht — Hope for Our Future Selves," On Being, March 27, 2014