Abstract

The United States has been at war for almost two decades since 9-11. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have led to thousands of servicemen and -women suffering catastrophic physical and psychological wounds. Department of Defense studies estimate that at least 30% of modern-day combat veterans suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder in addition to other combat-related medical injuries. The subspecialty of clinical health psychology has provided thousands of service members with cutting-edge behavioral health care. In this chapter, the authors discuss unique clinical applications for service members suffering from mental health and/or medical disorders. The authors propose a model for the delivery of innovative clinical health psychology applications in a military setting. The authors offer an overview of military clinical health psychology graduate training programs. Additionally, the authors provide recommendations for civilian university training programs to enhance their curricula to include an emphasis on military-related health psychology training. The chapter concludes by addressing challenges and innovations for the future of clinical health psychology applications in military settings.