Rebecca was invited to join the SEAL Future Foundation’s Medical Advisory Board by Dr. Frueh, who is the psychologist who first published on Operator Syndrome. Among other roles and responsibilities, the Board is authoring best practice guidelines for Special Operator health & wellness.
Rebecca’s focus is on the Operator Syndrome guidelines, but she is contributing to all of the guidelines for best practices. Mental health and physical health are inexorably linked and should be treated together. Nurses are trained to consider the whole person, even in specialty areas like Rebecca’s (she is a psychiatric nurse practitioner). Her initial patient appointments include a full medical review; physical illness impacts mental health and vice versa. For example, folks who have poor thyroid function can experience depression, and the depression can be the first obvious sign of poor thyroid function. Once their thyroid is treated, their depression should lift.
You can follow her work here and on Instagram (@tacticalpsychiatry).
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