Understanding Behavioral Health Technicians Within the Military: A Review of Training, Practice, and Professional Development

Abstract

The military service branches employ a range of health care professionals to meet the diverse health care needs of their beneficiary population. Addressing the behavioral health issues among service members and their families remains a priority for the Military Health System (MHS). Care extenders, part of the health workforce, are members of the care team that provide supportive clinical services alongside licensed independent providers. Behavioral health technicians (BHTs) are enlisted service members who complete technical training to serve as care extenders to licensed mental health providers. BHTs are a key part of the behavioral health workforce. Although BHTs receive substantial training to perform a range of clinical activities, including triage, assessment, counseling, and prevention, to date there has not been a full assessment of the extent to which their selection, preparation, training, and assessment matches the breadth of their roles (in terms of the roles and functions they have been anticipated to play and those that they have undertaken in the field). Accordingly, in recent years, the MHS has demonstrated an interest in better understanding the training of BHTs and the clinical roles that they fulfill. The Psychological Health Center of Excellence (PHCoE) asked the RAND National Defense Research Institute to assess the current functional operation and utilization of BHTs within the MHS and develop actionable recommendations for optimizing the engagement of BHTs in the MHS. This includes understanding how BHTs function in different military health contexts and identifying optimal roles and needed training and preparation to fulfill these roles.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2019
Accession Number
AD1088625

Entities

People

  • Amanda Meyer
  • Harold A. Pincus
  • Kimberly A Hepner
  • Stephanie B. Holliday
  • Terri Tanielian

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Brain Injuries
  • Business Administration
  • Doctrine
  • Health Services
  • Hospitals
  • Management Personnel
  • Medical Personnel
  • Military Hospitals
  • Military Medicine
  • Online Communications
  • Psychological Tests
  • Psychology
  • Students
  • Therapy
  • Warfare

Fields of Study

  • Medicine
  • Psychology

Readers

  • Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery.
  • Defense Technology Research and Development.
  • Medical or Health Care Field.