Guidelines for Creating, Implementing, and Evaluating Mind–Body Programs in a Military Healthcare Setting

Research suggests that the development of mind–body skills can improve individual and family resilience, particularly related to the stresses of illness, trauma, and caregiving. To operationalize the research evidence that mind–body skills help with health and recovery, Samueli Institute, in partnership with experts in mind–body programming, created a set of guidelines for developing and evaluating mind–body programs for service members, veterans, and their families.The Guidelines for Creating, Implementing, and Evaluating Mind–Body Programs in a Military Healthcare Setting outline key strategies and issues to consider when developing, implementing, and evaluating a mind–body focused family empowerment approach in a military healthcare setting. Although these guidelines were developed specifically for a military setting, most of the same principles can be applied to the development of programs in the civilian setting as well.The guidelines particularly address issues unique to mind–body programs, such as choosing evidence-based modalities, licensure and credentialing, safety and contraindications, and choosing evaluation measures that capture the holistic nature of these types of programs.The guidelines are practical, practice-based guidelines, developed by experts in the fields of program development and evaluation, mind–body therapies, patient- and family-centered care, as well as, experts in military and veteran׳s health systems. They provide a flexible framework to create mind–body family empowerment programs and describe important issues that program developers and evaluators are encouraged to address to ensure the development of the most impactful, successful, evidence-supported programs possible.