BTM35-Suicide Prevention for Transitioning Service Members
Show Summary
On this episode of Behind The Mission, we have a conversation with Dr. Joseph Geraci, a retired Army Combat Veteran and Psychologist with the VISN 2 MIRECC where he focuses on studying and developing interventions that mitigate the significant suicidal risks that our Modern Warriors face as they attempt to reintegrate back into their civilian communities after military service.
About Today’s Guest
Dr. Joseph Geraci, PhD, retired from the U.S. Army as an Infantry Lieutenant Colonel after serving for 20 years and deploying as a combat leader with elite Special Operations/Ranger, Airborne, and Infantry units to Afghanistan four different times since 9/11. While in uniform, he also served as an assistant professor at the U.S. Military Academy in both the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership and the Department of Military Instruction. One of his last positions in the U.S. Army was serving as an Infantry Battalion Commander in which he was directly responsible for the health, welfare, and combat readiness of his soldiers. He received his doctoral degree in clinical psychology from Teachers College at Columbia University. He teaches military psychology to graduate students at Teachers College, and was a co-founder of the college’s Resilience Center for Veterans and Families. He serves within the VISN 2 MIRECC as a licensed psychologist and is focused on studying and developing interventions that mitigate the significant suicidal risks that our Modern Warriors (some of them being his former soldiers) face as they attempt to reintegrate back into their civilian communities after military service. Within the MIRECC, he leads two national VA programs (Veteran Cultural Competence training and the Expiration Term of Service Sponsorship program evaluation).
PsychArmor Resource of the Week
The PsychArmor resource for this week is the course on military culture, Veteran 101. This course is intended for anyone with little to no background or understanding of military culture. Topics include information about the training involved for a service member, some basic military terminology, and an overview of important policies that guide our military. The goal of this course it to provide a better understanding of differences between military culture and civilian culture. You can this course here: https://psycharmor.org/courses/veteran-101-military-culture/
Theme Music
Our theme music Don’t Kill the Messenger was written and performed by Navy Veteran Jerry Maniscalco, in cooperation with Operation Encore, a non profit committed to supporting singer/songwriter and musicians across the military and Veteran communities.
This Episode Sponsored By:
This episode is sponsored by PsychArmor, the premier education and learning ecosystem specializing in military culture content. PsychArmor offers an online e-learning laboratory with custom training options for organizations.
Producer and Host Duane France is a retired Army Noncommissioned Officer, combat veteran, and clinical mental health counselor for service members, veterans, and their families. You can find more about the work that he is doing at www.veteranmentalhealth.com