Mental Health Advisory Team VI
"Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to face stress from multiple deployments into combat, but report being more adequately prepared for the stresses of deployments. Those were among findings of two teams of behavioral-health experts who surveyed and interviewed troops in the theater as part of the sixth Mental Health Advisory Team (MHAT).

Another notable conclusion is that “dwell time” at home between deployments is important to Soldier mental health.

“The dwell time effect is pretty strong. It turned out to be more important than some of the other variables,” commented Lt. Col. Paul D. Bliese, director of the division of psychiatry and neuroscience at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR). Bliese led the team in Iraq.

“Cumulative time deployed was less important than immediate dwell time. In other words, someone who had a total of 20 months deployed over several years and 12 months dwell time was better off than someone with 12 months of total deployment, but only eight months dwell time,” Bliese added. The team in Iraq found that behavioral-health problems in maneuver units return to near garrison rates (about 10 percent with problems) after 24 months of dwell time, and completely returned after 30 to 36 months of dwell time.

The teams, working in Iraq from February to March and in Afghanistan from April to June, formed the sixth Mental Health Advisory Team (MHAT VI) since the start of the wars, evaluating the psychological health of troops and the behavioral-health care resources in theater. The teams included research psychologists, a social worker, a psychiatric nurse and enlisted behavioral-health specialists. This year sergeants major from WRAIR and U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command also participated..."