“We are excited about this project because it is putting cutting edge research related to performance enhancement in the hands of our most valuable stakeholder, the DoD Servicemember.”
“I'm excited to help the team deliver a sophisticated but accessible app for service members to use so that mindfulness can be demystified and mindfulness practice can be easily integrated into daily life.”
Mental Push-ups: Mindfulness in the Military Application
Description
Our team intends to adapt evidence-informed exercises and skills education to develop a novel mindfulness app for military populations. The materials used for the app are based on extensive research and work with high-demand cohorts, including the DoD. Current evidence supports that mindfulness training improves mental health, attention, and working memory. At the present, there is no established product for wide dissemination of mindfulness training and practice in the military. Our team intends to fill this gap as an upstream suicide prevention and wellness tool. Existing mindfulness resources are not contextualized for the military, are resource intensive, and do not support optimal uptake.
Strategic Alignment with National Suicide Prevention Goals
CDC Suicide Prevention Strategies
As it is outlined in the CDC's "Preventing Suicide: A Technical Package of Policy, Programs, and Practices," our project is aligned with the following strategies:
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Promote Connectedness
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Teach Coping and Problem-Solving Skills
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White House Priorities
As it is outlined in The White House "Fact Sheet: New Strategy Outlines Five Priorities for Reducing Military and Veteran Suicide," our project is aligned with the following priorities:
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Addressing Upstream Risk and Protective Factors
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Selected References
- Denkova, E., Alessio, C., Barry, J., Zanesco, A. P., Rogers., S. L., Matusevich, K., & Jha, A.P. (in press). Practical and theoretical consideration for mindfulness training implementation in organizational settings. In Y. Pathak & L. Wilkin (Eds.), Handbook of Organizational Conflict Management. De Gruyter Publishing.
- Jha, A. P. (2021). Peak Mind: Find Your Focus, Own Your Attention, Invest 12 Minutes a Day. HarperOne.
- Jha, A. P., Zanesco, A. P., Denkova, E., MacNulty, W. K., & Rogers, S. L. (2021). The Effects of Mindfulness Training on Working Memory Performance in High-Demand Cohorts: a Multi-study Investigation. Journal of Cognitive Enhancement.
- Roche, M., Good, D., Lyddy, C., Tuckey, M. R., Grazier, M., Leroy, H., & Hülsheger, U. (2020). A Swiss army knife? How science challenges our understanding of mindfulness in the workplace. Organizational Dynamics, 49(4).