Objectives Deployment & Implementation

The initial objective will be to build the infrastructure necessary to implement the SR® process systemically across several parameters and locations worldwide. This will permanently put in place all the support staff within the Military to continue to administer and supervise the SR® process and its ability to effectively intervene in the US Military PTSD crisis, curtail and eradicate combat warrior suicide, and intervene in numerous other depressive disorders experienced by US Military warriors and their families. There will be three steps involved in implementing the SR® process and building the initial infrastructure. 

SR® Deployment Consists of a 3 Component Infrastructure

Step 1: SR® Training & Certification

SR® Training & Certification Timeline

  • The timeline from SR® Training to completion of the SR® Certification is approximately two weeks. After completion of the SR® Certification the newly Certified SR® Counselor can be assigned clients.

SR® Training

  • SR® Training will happen over 3 days, four hours per day live or online. (additional cost for onsite training)

SR® Certification

  • Completion of the SR® Certification will require the new SR® Counselor to initiate three, 4 hour individual or group sessions with before and after data collection and one follow-up.
  • Initial SR® sessions will be done in a single 4 hour session with follow-up emotional checklist the following day or 2 two hour sessions on consecutive days. Follow-up should be done withing three days.
  • After evaluation and approval of the three sessions from the Burris Institute an SR® Certificate will be issued along with a Board of Behavioral Sciences 27 CEU statement from the Burris Institute and Certification will be complete. The newly Certified SR® Counselor is now ready to be assigned clients.

Step 2: SR® Support Services: Integral support services from the Burris Institute will include but are not limited to…

  • Phone Support: Immediate phone support after the SR® Certification and throughout the duration of a contract will be made available to all new CSRC’s
  • Retaking an SR® Certification: All CSRC’s can retake an SR® Certification at any time throughout the duration of a contract.
  • SR® Monitoring Services: Statistical performance monitoring of counselors will be done monthly to assure the effectiveness of SR® Certified Counselors. Should an issue occur with an SR® Counselor they will be assigned to another SR® Certification or SR® Workshop at no charge.
  • Client Support: The Burris Institute will follow up on and resolve issues specific to the SR® Process.

Step 3: Burris Connect Behavioral Health Network & EHR

  • Burris Connect: All who are certified in the SR® Process will have an account at the BurrisConnect.com website which will enable them to work with clients worldwide.
  • SR® Supervisor Counselor: The SR® Supervisor Counselor will have the ability to track and assign Counselors to clients. This includes performance of an individual SR® Counselor with individual date ranges or a statistical overview of all SR® Counselors.
  • SR® Counselor: SR® Counselors will be able to set up individual and group SR® Workshops with progress tracking of each client. Maximum number per SR® Workshop is 20.
  • SR® Client: SR® clients will have 24-7 access to their completed documents and the ability to complete work assigned from the SR® Counselor at any time. Privacy of all documents other than the Emotional Checklist is determined by the client.

SR® Counseling & Workshop Implementation

US Military Command Certified SR® personnel and Burris Institute staff administer the SR® Program to selected US Military Combat and Noncombat-experienced Personnel as follows:

  • Identified PTSD/suicidal US Military combat-exposed warriors and their spouses and children (7-17 year old children and young adults living at home)
  • Returning From Combat Zone warriors and their spouses and children (7-17 year old children and young adults living at home) (PTS and PTSD SR® counseling)
  • Pre-deployment to Combat Zone warriors and their spouses and children (7-17 year old children and young adults living at home) (preventive SR® counseling)
  • Alert personnel and crews
  • Local trauma incident victims/personnel
  • Military/air Police
  • Stockade/Article 15 NJP confines/detainees
  • Spouse/child abuse perpetrators and victims
  • Alcohol and chemical abuse identified personnel and their spouses
  • Military dependents with identified mental health issues/problems
  • Military instructors
  • Overseas military schoolteachers (elementary through high school)

US Military warriors identified or diagnosed as “at risk” for PTSD/suicide, and their families, will receive an intensive two day workshop with an immediate third day follow-up intended to stem and stop the most serious outcomes involving these “at risk” conditions, with provision for a fourth and fifth day, if deemed necessary.  Data collection will take place before each workshop, at the completion of the SR® process and at every follow-up.  Following this intensive SR® Workshop, Warriors and families will be scheduled to receive ongoing weekly (or more frequent suicide-prevention) 1-2 hour treatment administered by US Military SR® Certified personnel.  This ongoing weekly treatment frequency will continue for at least a six month period, with monthly visits during months 7-12, and release to annual visits by Certified US Military SR® staff.  All frequency of treatment intervals will be pragmatic, and determined by our data collection process in the warriors/family recovery from PTSD and suicidal risk.  

Returning from Combat Zone warriors not identified or diagnosed with PTSD or suicide symptoms, and their spouses and applicable children will receive an intensive two day SR® Workshop conducted by US Military command. Burris Institute staff will be made available.  Identified warriors and family members in need of additional SR® treatment as described above, will continue to receive SR® treatment. 

Pre-deployment to Combat Zone Warriors and their spouses and children (7-17 year old children and young adults living at home) will receive an intensive two day SR® Workshop administered by certified US Military personnel.  Burris Institute staff will be made available. Identified warriors and family members in need of additional SR® treatment as described above, will continue to receive SR® treatment. 

Alert personnel and crews, and their spouses and children (7-17 year old children and young adults living at home) will receive an intensive two day SR® Workshop administered by certified US Military personnel.  Burris Institute staff will be made available. Identified warriors and family members in need of additional SR® treatment as described above, will continue to receive SR® treatment. 

Military/air Police, Stockade/Article 15 NJP confines/detainees, and Military instructors will receive an intensive two day SR® Workshop administered  by certified US Military personnel. Burris Institute staff will be made available.  Identified warriors and family members in need of additional SR® treatment as described above, will continue to receive SR® treatment. 

Overseas military schoolteachers (elementary through high school), Local trauma incident victims/personnel, Spouse/child abuse perpetrators and victims, Alcohol and chemical abuse identified personnel and their spouses, Military dependents with identified mental health issues/problems, and other US Military-identified personnel will receive an intensive two day SR® Workshop administered by certified US Military staff. Burris Institute staff will be made available. Identified warriors and family members and other personnel in need of additional SR® treatment as described above, will continue to receive SR® treatment. 

Personnel to Receive Master SR® Certification:

  • 1-2 US Military Command staff personnel at each command/base
  • 1-2 persons at each US Military medical facility
  • 1-2 persons at each US Military Support/Service Center
  • 1-2 Chaplains at each US Military base
  • 1-2 military instructors at each US Military base
  • 1-2 DOD schoolteachers at each applicable US Military school


Master Certification of the SR® process will be accomplished by Master Certified SR® Counselors for 6-12 US Military command personnel identified above.  These Master SR® Certified personnel will then be able to perpetuate the administration of the SR® Process on a continuing basis by Certifying others in the SR® process.

Each US Military Certified SR® person can receive Master SR® Certification after accomplishing the following:

  • Conduct a publishable quality research study of the SR® process with at least 20 persons participating.  All sutdies will be conducted on the Burris Connect website.  When applicable, SR® Workshops described above can be utilized as a research study group.
  • Receive approval from the Burris Institute for Master Certification in the SR® process.  

Data Analytic Strategy

The SR® team will use direct data collection instruments that measure warrior, family and personnel Emotional Checklist, a Behavior Control Checklist to measure whether or not the person understood the SR® process, and a Relationship Satisfaction Scale.   In addition, satisfaction/success surveys will be administered to all US Military command personnel for both formative and summative pragmatic changes to the administration of the SR® process.  This data will be compared with all methods currently used to treat PTSD and suicidality in the Military, and will help to identify and profile future warrior/family PTSD/suicide “at risk” personnel.

Analysis of this data will be accomplished using the Burris Connect Progress Tracker and analysis component. Changes in the emotional state and behavior of Certified Personnel, Warriors families, and US Military staff from the initial SR® baselining data, can be tracked daily, weekly , monthly or yearly via the Burris Connect Progress Tracker. Paralleling this SR® data analysis will be the collection, analysis, and correlation of all available US Military performance and social/behavioral data. Complementing this data analysis will be a series of formative and summative subjective questionnaires administered to all study participants at agreed upon intervals.  The numerical data analysis of these survey instruments will also be correlated, participant by participant, with both the SR® data and Military social/behavioral data.

Dissemination of Data

Dissemination of accumulated data will be made available to all authorized personnel via a password protected web site. This will provide communications, resource sharing and a scalable knowledgebase for all collaborative parties in a tiered permission structure.

Suicide Prevention and Counseling Research

The SR® Process addresses each parameter brought up by the research topics of military suicide prevention and counseling research. There are four categories (Prevention, Screening, Treatment, and Quality of Life) and 10 topic areas:

Prevention

1. Effective suicide prevention strategies that focus on tactical suicide prevention across the operational spectrum and DoD that use a broad based approach designed to, but not limited to:

a. Reduce risk factors and enhancing protective factors

b. Change social norms to eliminate stigma about seeking help

c. Improve understanding of mental health

d. improve buddy-aid

2. Evidence-based counseling to prevent and/or reduce nurse stress and fatigue at military treatment facilities

3. Effective peer, leader, and first responder risk assessment and management training tools and products to detect and prevent suicide

Screening

4. Test ways to effectively detect and assess the psychological impact of first responders who work on the scene with suicide completers and their survived loved ones

5. Test ways to detect the antecedents, associations (to include, but not limited to family adversities, prescribed medications, other therapies, substance misuse, and mental disorders), and other risk factors effective at predicting suicidal behavior in field and clinical environments (i.e., primary care, behavioral health) across the military operational spectrum

6. Test ways to effectively detect the psychological impact, coping mechanisms, and psychological risks from loss to suicide among loved ones of the deceased

7. Evidence-based suicide assessment scales effective at predicting suicidal behavior and evidence-based suicide assessment interventions for tactical (i.e., peer, leader, first responder) and clinical environments (i.e., primary care, behavioral health) across DoD and VA health care systems

Treatment

8. Evidence based treatment, crisis intervention, clinical post-intervention and case management for Service members identified with suicidality

9. Evidenced-based treatment of patients with co-occurring suicidality and mental and/or physical illness

Quality of Life

10. Investigations into the reactions, grief, and needs of loved ones and peers of suicide completers which lead to evidence based bereavement interventions to facilitate support and recovery from loss.

Future data collection and the integration of PET/MRI scans