title: Guidelines for Creating, Implementing, and Evaluating Mind-Body Programs in a Military Healthcare Setting.
abstract: Research suggests that the development of mind-body skills can improve individual and family resilience, particularly related to the stresses of illness, trauma, and caregiving. To operationalize the research evidence that mind-body skills help with health and recovery, Samueli Institute, in partnership with experts in mind-body programming, created a set of guidelines for developing and evaluating mind-body programs for service members, veterans, and their families. The Guidelines for Creating, Implementing, and Evaluating Mind-Body Programs in a Military Healthcare Setting outline key strategies and issues to consider when developing, implementing, and evaluating a mind-body focused family empowerment approach in a military healthcare setting. Although these guidelines were developed specifically for a military setting, most of the same principles can be applied to the development of programs in the civilian setting as well. The guidelines particularly address issues unique to mind-body programs, such as choosing evidence-based modalities, licensure and credentialing, safety and contraindications, and choosing evaluation measures that capture the holistic nature of these types of programs. The guidelines are practical, practice-based guidelines, developed by experts in the fields of program development and evaluation, mind-body therapies, patient- and family-centered care, as well as, experts in military and veteran's health systems. They provide a flexible framework to create mind-body family empowerment programs and describe important issues that program developers and evaluators are encouraged to address to ensure the development of the most impactful, successful, evidence-supported programs possible.
authors.affiliation: Optimal Healing Environments, Samueli Institute, 1737 King St, Suite 600, Alexandria, VA 22314. Electronic address: ksmith@siib.org.
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892.
authors.forename: Kimberly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Firth
authors.affiliation: Health Promotion Disease Prevention Manager, San Francisco VA Medical Center, San Francisco, CA.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Smeeding
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Duke School of Medicine, Durham, NC; Duke Integrative Medicine, Durham, NC; Vanderbilt Health Coaching, Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Vanderbilt, Nashville, TN; Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and Department of Psychiatry, Vanderbilt Schools of Medicine and Nursing, Nashville, TN.
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wolever
authors.affiliation: Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care, Bethesda, MD.
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kaufman
authors.affiliation: Optimal Healing Environments, Samueli Institute, 1737 King St, Suite 600, Alexandria, VA 22314.
authors.forename: Roxana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Delgado
authors.affiliation: Optimal Healing Environments, Samueli Institute, 1737 King St, Suite 600, Alexandria, VA 22314.
authors.forename: Dawn
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bellanti
authors.affiliation: Optimal Healing Environments, Samueli Institute, 1737 King St, Suite 600, Alexandria, VA 22314.
authors.forename: Lea
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xenakis
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D006801:Humans; D008887:Military Medicine; D008889:Military Personnel; D026441:Mind-Body Therapies; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D014728:Veterans
keywords: Empowerment; Guidelines; Healthcare; Military healthcare; Mind–body skills; Program evaluation