A Personnel Security Training Program for Clinicians: Phase 1
Abstract
Prior DoD personnel security research identified interest in a cadre of personnel-security-trained clinicians (i.e., psychologists and psychiatrists) to consult on mental-health-related background investigation and adjudication issues (Senholzi et al., 2016; Shedler and Lang, 2015). The current initiative assessed this point further by (1) characterizing specific use of and need for clinicians under current mental health vetting procedures, (2) assessing current clinician workload to inform future resource needs, and (3) identifying preexisting personnel security training resources for potential clinician use. Findings confirmed that a cadre of readily accessible consulting clinicians can improve interactions with subjects mental health providers, interpretation of mental health records, identification of psychological evaluators (particularly for contract employees), and receipt of psychological evaluations based on personnel-security-centric assessment. Although mental health issues are self-reported in only about 15,900 (2.3 ) scheduled National Background Investigation Bureau investigations annually (~9,800 initial investigations [1.4 ] and ~6,100 periodic reinvestigations [0.9 ], respectively), clinician consulting needs applicable to these cases are not inconsequential. Furthermore, this estimate does not include the approximate 3,100 Adjudicative Guideline I: Psychological Condition incident reports that arise in between initial and periodic reinvestigations each year for centrally adjudicated DoD clearances (~6.0 of all DoD incidents reported annually; see Jaros et al., 2017). In many of these instances, a group of consulting clinicians could help to ensure the collection of independent, fair, and standardized psychological feedback. Finally, three preexisting personnel security resources were identified to inform future clinician training program implementation efforts.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2018
- Accession Number
- AD1056037
Entities
People
- Catina M. Smith
- Jessica A. Baweja
- Marie M. Osborn
- Rene M. Dickerhoof