title: Deployment guidelines for diplomats: current policy and practice.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Diplomatic organizations routinely send staff to high-threat postings (HTPs) and consequentially have moral and legal obligations to protect their health as far as is reasonably practicable.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To carry out an international survey of diplomatic organizations that send personnel to HTPs to establish how they deal practically with their obligations to protect the mental health of their staff.
  
  
  METHODS
  An online anonymous survey about their organizations' policies relating to HTPs completed by international diplomatic organizations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fourteen of 30 organizations approached completed the questionnaire, with a response rate of 47%. Deployment length varied: no minimum (15%), a minimum of 2 years (39%) and a maximum of 2 (31%), 3 (15%) or 4 years (31%); one organization did not state any maximum. HTP and low-threat postings had the same policies in 46% of organizations. Additional care and support (66%), additional preparation (50%), enhanced leave (33%) and additional physical and mental health assessments were informally adopted to address psychosocial risks of deployment to HTPs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There was little consensus on policies and practice for HTP deployment. We suggest that formal, consistently written guidelines, based on available quality evidence, and associated training and quality assurance should be formulated to make international practice more consistent and equitable.
authors.affiliation: King's Centre for Military Mental Health, King's College London, London SE5 9RJ, UK, rebecca.r.dunn@kcl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dunn
authors.affiliation: Healthplanning Ltd, Reading, Berkshire RG6 1QB, UK.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kemp
authors.affiliation: Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London SW1A 2AH, UK.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.affiliation: Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, Faculty of Humanities, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.affiliation: King's Centre for Military Health Research, King's College London, London SE5 9RJ, UK.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Greenberg
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D000067551:Diplomacy; D006801:Humans; D008603:Mental Health; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D016134:Organizational Policy; D012306:Risk; D012944:Social Support; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Guidelines; mental health; military; occupational health practice; policy; psychological health.