Active Duty airmen may be eligible for four off-the-record visits at their local base mental health clinic as part of service-wide efforts to bolster airmen’s physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health, announced service medical officials on Wednesday. The Resiliency Enhancement Visits program aims to encourage service members who might otherwise hesitate to seek mental health treatment to get the help they may need. These visits are meant to support airmen experiencing temporary reactions to stress events, such as grief or relationship or occupational problems, according to the Jan. 30 release from the 87th Medical Group at JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. Health officials will not establish a mental health record for these visits and will not document these visits in an airman’s electronic medical record, states the release. The appointments are voluntary and commanders and supervisors cannot direct persons to participate. (McGuire report by SSgt. Amber Merefield)
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…