Heather O'Beirne Kelly, PhD, hails from a family with multiple generations of career military officers, all of them combat veterans. Her father is a Naval Academy graduate and retired nuclear submariner. One grandfather was a three-star admiral and Navy pilot; the other was a four-star general in the Army.
Although Kelly has never served, "I not only have the deepest admiration and respect for those who serve but also an understanding of the families who get left behind," she says.
Now she has a way to work professionally on the issue she cares about so much personally: She heads APA's new Military and Veterans' Policy team.
The cross-directorate team hopes to bring new attention to military issues and how psychology can bring its expertise to bear on those issues. The team's overall goal is to work at the federal level to promote the health and well-being of military personnel, veterans and their families and communities.
To William J. Strickland, member-at-large of APA's Board of Directors and a past president of APA's Div. 19 (Society for Military Psychology), the creation of the Military and Veterans' Policy team signals APA's growing — and much-needed — commitment to members of the armed forces both past and present.
"We've been at war for over a decade, with an all-volunteer Army that's been deployed again and again," says Strickland. "Any time you can get a critical mass of people focusing on something in a targeted way, that's beneficial."
Of course, says Kelly, APA has a long history of working on military and veterans' issues.
In the past, staff from APA's Science, Education, Public Interest and Practice directorates as well as the executive office have focused on such areas as training and professional support for psychologists working with military and veteran populations and funding and implementation of psychological research related to the missions of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). They've also worked on behalf of military children; survivors of military sexual assault; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender service members; and other subpopulations.
While these staff collaborated informally when needed, says Kelly, the new Military and Veterans' Policy team aims to take a more coordinated, proactive approach to the vast range of relevant policy issues staff are working on throughout APA.
The team will also help ensure that APA does a better job of communicating its commitment to the military and veterans' community, says Kelly. "Part of my job is just making sure our own members — as well as the military, our veterans and the public at large — know that their concerns are critical to us and that we are actively working in these arenas," she says.
Addressing military and veterans' issues more holistically also makes more sense, says Kelly, a clinical psychologist who was previously the Science Directorate's point person on military issues.
"It's vital that we advocate not only for strong investments in psychological research at both the DOD and VA, but also that the agencies then disseminate the results of that research and incorporate them in ways that improve national security and promote health and well-being among personnel," she says. "I'm able to advocate from that broader perspective now."
Reflecting that holistic approach, the Military and Veterans' Policy team approaches military issues from various perspectives.
Legislative work is Kelly's current priority, for example. "I'm leading a federal legislative effort to try to get prescription privileges that we already have for appropriately trained psychologists in the DOD extended to the VA, so that psychologists will be allowed to prescribe in the whole VA system," she says. Both the House of Representatives and Senate have drafted legislation granting this authority, and Kelly is working with congressional staff to move it through committee.
Other legislative priorities determined in conjunction with Capitol Hill staff include mandating mental health assessments for anyone seeking to enlist or receive a commission in the armed forces, encouraging VA psychologists to collaborate with local law enforcement's crisis intervention trainers and strengthening the ability of VA psychologists and other clinicians to talk with suicidal veterans about safe storage of firearms.
Workforce training is another priority. As part of APA's involvement with the White House's Joining Forces initiative to help military members and families, APA's Education Directorate has had more than 140 psychology training programs pledge their support. These programs have agreed to train psychology students to be more aware of issues related to serving active duty service members, veterans and their families, says Catherine Grus, PhD, the directorate's deputy executive director.
To help training programs achieve that goal, APA has created webinars and brought together other resources, all available online.
For more information about the work of the Military and Veterans' Policy team, visit Military Service Members, Veterans, and Their Families.
