Behavioral Health and Wellness Subcommittee

Chair: LCDR Debra Chen 

Co-Chair: LCDR Gina Masessa*

Co-Chair: LCDR Sharoda Dasgupta*

 * indicates non-voting member

Standard Operating Procedure

• Standard Operating Procedure [PDF] (coming soon)

Purpose

We envision an environment to enhance the overall wellbeing of life for our Scientist officer. We want to ensure our officers are both physically and emotionally healthy and strong enough to be able to carry out the service’s mission to protect, promote, and advance the health and safety of our Nation to the best of their ability. We intend to focus on a whole person health approach and promote this vision through the following goals:

• Increase awareness of mental health issues and destigmatize and normalize conversations around mental health among Scientist Officers.
• Link Scientist officers to appropriate mental health resources.
• Advocate for Scientist officers through PHS policies related to mental health.

Activities

• Develop and maintain repository for mental health and well-being resources for officers
• Advocate for mental health policies and resources for officers with CCHQ
• Promote officer mental health and well-being by liaising widely with other PACs, CCWIAB, and other SG and SciPAC Subcommittees
• Develop new resources for officer health and wellness (e.g., mental health messaging, presentations, webinars, and virtual sessions)
•  Promote esprit de corps among the PAC by strategically creating content and engaging with officers via social media outlets
• Disseminates subcommittee products and resources via the SC’s website

Advocacy Team

Improves policies around mental health of officers, by identifying issues of concern and completing attainable goals. The team handles concerns from Scientist officers and triages them as needed. The team will also maintain data regarding concerns to facilitate advocacy and work with CCHQ.

Existing Resources Team

The Existing Resource Team gathers existing resources that would be used for dissemination efforts. This includes information on general mental health, maintaining work-life balance, and burnout (e.g., CDC, SAMHSA, Military One). The team helps officers navigate TRICARE and provides resources for employment programs. They provide literature on mental health outcomes and links to surveys to assess mental health (e.g., “Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World”).

Liaison Team

The Liaison Team liaises with other groups to promote mental health and share resources more widely with other PACs, CCWIAB, and any other SG or SciPAC Subcommittees to make sure there is an open dialogue.

New Resources Team

The New Resources Team creates new resources for Scientists Officers for health and wellness. These can include mental health messaging, presentations, webinars, and virtual sessions. This team will also help create new materials and disseminate them in the forms of newsletters and infographics.

Secretary Team

The Secretary Team maintains process organization and documentation for the subcommittee by creating a SC email list, organizing links for meetings, taking minutes, and recording attendance. The team also communicates information from the chairs to the SC and drafts/submits Letters of Appreciation for the SC.

Social Media Team

The Social Media Team promotes esprit de corps among the PAC by strategically creating content and engaging with officers via social media outlets.

Standard Operating Procedure Team

The SOP Team develops and maintains SOPs for PAC and the SC. The team drafts operating procedures according to SciPAC format for review and will also draft the Behavioral Health & Wellness SC section for SciPAC.

Website Team

The Website Team disseminates subcommittee products and resources to create and update the SC’s website. The team maintains a repository for resources accessible to all officers via the PAC webpage.