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important implications for practitioners and the DoD. The the Army Substance Abuse Program. The ARD’s resiliency
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DoD priorities focus on strengthening operational readiness, training component uses a psycho-educational model to teach
modernizing for a more lethal force, and facilitating optimal soldiers “evidence-based protective factors that contribute to
performance. These priorities all require the effective training the ability to endure adversity and challenge or bounce back
of elite performance psychological factors at both individual from hardship” to navigate daily personal and professional
and organizational levels. life. In addition, sport psychology professionals who train
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positive and performance psychology concepts and skills were
This article begins by providing historical context on tradi- primarily installation assets but more recently, began embed-
tional approaches to psychological service delivery and its ding in brigades.
evolution to applying performance psychology within volatile,
high-pressure competitive environments. We then define per- Other examples of service programs for mental health and
formance psychology and broaden the perspective on psycho- performance include the US Air Force Task Force True North
logical health and readiness to encompass the growing utility of (TFTN), a collection of five initiatives chartered by the US Air
psychological approaches in military environments. Finally, we Force. The various TFTN initiatives included Welcome Cen-
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present an aspirational model for performance psychology ser- ters, New Orientation for Reducing Threats to Health from
vice delivery aimed to minimize burden and maximize impact Secretive Problems that Affect Readiness (NORTH STAR),
on warfighter readiness, psychological health, and capabilities. Religious Support Teams (RSTs), Embedded Mental Health
Teams (EMHTs), and Operational Support Teams (OSTs). All
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were designed to improve airmen resilience and well-being. 18
Evolution of Military Psychology Programs
The application of American psychology in the military Similarly, the POTFF emerged as a multidomain model to
emerged as a direct result of the nation’s need to address the maximize human performance through increasing access to
impact of World Wars I and II, and to effectively train and services for those in need and to attempt to minimize potential
deploy resources to help warfighters cope with the hardships stigma associated with seeking care. The integrated and ho-
of war and their reintegration into the civilian population. listic POTFF program is built on five domains: physical, psy-
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Addressing mental illness and returning warfighters to a psy- chological, cognitive, social and family, and spiritual. Service
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chologically healthy state have been important concerns in the delivery within POTFF emphasizes embedded assets and do-
military for ages. Specifically, psychology in the military has main experts who have the ability to tailor programs based on
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focused on remediation of illness and alleviation of psycholog- unit and individual functional demands. Assets included social
ical trauma, distress, and negative outcomes associated with workers, clinical psychologists, chaplains, and other enablers.
military-related stressors, exposures, and wartime sequelae.
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Programs to enhance psychological support for warfighters The most recent initiative – the Army’s Holistic Health and
in need began with a clinical emphasis, while subsequent ef- Fitness (H2F) – aspires to build and sustain combat readiness
forts focused on early intervention or more timely identifica- through a comprehensive and integrated plan comparable
tion of symptoms and treatment of psychological issues. The to POTFF. Growing emphasis on holistic fitness across all
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next focus was on prevention: programs such as the Navy and branches of service and throughout the DoD offers unique
Marine Corps’ Combat Operational Stress Control (COSC) opportunities to normalize the acquisition and deployment of
emerged as preventive educational measures to attempt to buf- performance-enhancing capabilities, including mental skills.
fer against posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, The proliferation of holistic fitness programs provides open-
and alcohol abuse, and used the stress continuum model as ings to design and execute physical training programs that
their framework. Current efforts acknowledge the value of elicit beneficial adaptations across physical, neurocognitive,
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Servicemember talents, consider work and life well-being, and psychological and emotional, physiological, behavioral, and
provide proactive and skill-based training. Such trainings are emotional domains, all of which underlie performance.
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offered to attempt to decrease the incidence of depression and
suicide, and mitigate the negative impact of persistent stress
exposure. They are also intended to aid spouses and family Embracing a Full-Spectrum Approach
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members in navigating transitions, trauma, and the stressors to Psychological Health and Readiness
of military family life. Each service has various psychologi- Modern day psychological service delivery in the military in-
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cal health programs, but most were developed in response to cludes a full range of approaches, to include identifying and
clinical issues rather than being proactive to mitigate future ameliorating psychological disorders at one end of the spec-
potential mental health issues. trum to optimizing warfighter health and performance of their
mission essential core tasks (CT) and preserving the unit’s mis-
To close this gap, the military has steadily increased their in- sion essential tasks (MET) at the other end. 20,21 The CT and
vestment in mental fitness programs for Servicemembers and MET help individuals and teams define performance-based
their families. The first program was derived from the Army and occupation-specific metrics. Figure 1 depicts a conceptual
Center for Enhanced Performance (ACEP) in the early 1990s. model to help visualize and foster understanding for the appli-
Later, components of ACEP were adapted and integrated with cations of psychology across the spectrum of HPO capabilities
resilience and performance training efforts for the Compre- for military readiness.
hensive Soldier Fitness (CSF) and subsequently Comprehen-
sive Soldier and Family Fitness (CSF2) programs. CSF2 is now Health and performance services aim to move warfighters up-
named the Army’s Resilience Directorate (ARD) and comprised ward along the HPO spectrum. When warfighters are strug-
of Ready and Resilient [informed by positive and performance gling, health services work to restore baseline functionality
psychology], Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Pre- and stability. Once above baseline status, performance teams
vention Program, the Army Suicide Prevention Program, and can work to enable increasingly proficient CT execution under

116 | JSOM Volume 22, Edition 1 / Sping 2022