BUILDING HEALTHY MILITARY COMMUNITIES TOOLKIT
A RESOURCE FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE HEALTH PROVIDERS AND COMMUNITIES
Purpose and Use of This Toolkit
Public health and social service agencies, and many national, state, and community-based groups engage in work to improve the health of individuals in their jurisdictions. Because military and civilian operations do not typically interact on a regular basis, opportunities to better service military populations living off installations are often unexplored and underutilized.
Military performance is compromised if personnel are not healthy and physically fit. Obesity, tobacco use, and alcohol abuse pose a significant threat to military readiness and resilience.
This resource is designed for Department of Defense service providers (clinical, public/population health, family service programs, etc.), and other community-based organizations that support Service members and their families.
It provides tactics and strategies to engage in effective communications with public health and related agencies. It also outlines methods for identifying national and state resources available to Service members. More importantly, it provides guidance on evidence-based practices that have the potential to reach larger proportions of Service members by promoting the health of the communities in which they live.
With a few exceptions, this resource does not include DoD resources. The intent is to increase knowledge of civilian resources and evidence-based practices that can be adopted to enhance DoD’s efforts to help Service members, potential recruits and their families meet readiness standards.
There are five sections in this resource:
- Working with Public Health
- Tobacco Use
- Healthy Weight
- Substance Misuse (including alcohol, opioids, and supplements)
- Behavioral and Mental Health
The “Connecting Public Health to Department of Defense’s Building Healthy Military Communities” project is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $100,000 with 100 percent funded by CDC/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by CDC/HHS, or the U.S. Government”