About CDP

As the number, duration and frequency of military deployments increase, so do the behavioral health difficulties of Service members and their families. To better fulfill the unmet deployment-related behavioral health needs of Service members and their families, the Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP), an innovative Department of Defense psychology training consortium, was established in 2006. The CDP is a Tri-Service center initially funded by Congress and now a component center of the DoD’s Defense Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury. The CDP’s mission is to train military and civilian psychologists, psychology interns/residents and other behavioral health professionals to provide high quality deployment-related behavioral health services to military personnel and their families.

The CDP is designed in a “hub-and-spoke” framework with the headquarters at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda, Maryland and satellite sites at each of the eleven Military Treatment Facilities that house established APA-accredited Psychology Internship programs.  Under the direction of David Riggs, Ph.D., a nationally recognized expert in posttraumatic stress disorder, the CDP has developed a series of training experiences to prepare mental health professionals to work with Service members and families on deployment related issues.  

The training programs offered by the CDP address psychological reactions throughout the deployment cycle.  Courses generally include topics in four broad areas identified by military and civilian mental health professionals as particularly key to the care of Service members and their families. The first of these core topics is the culture, expectations and experience of military deployment including the reintegration with family and community upon return. Second, we address issues of psychological trauma and resilience to include treatment of PTSD and other problematic responses to trauma and deployment. Third, we present training material pertaining to the provision of behavioral health care to individuals suffering from serious medical injuries and traumatic brain injury. Fourth, we address the unique impact of military deployment on family members including children.

In an effort to adequately expand the availability of behavioral health clinicians who have been trained to address the needs of military personnel and their families, CDP training courses are made available to both military and civilian behavioral health professionals.  The 2-week long intensive course, Topics in Deployment Psychology, is held five times a year at USUHS and brings CDP staff and military and civilian experts together to train a primarily active duty provider audience on deployment related psychological health issues faced during deployment.  In 2008, the CDP staff developed a mobile, one week course, “Addressing the Psychological Health of Warriors and their Families”, geared toward training civilian providers and bringing professionals working with Service member together to build strong helping networks across the country.  

The CDP also offers 2 and 3 day mobile workshops that focus on training providers on specific empirically supported treatments to address some of the psychological health issues facing Service members.  These workshops include training in Prolonged Exposure Therapy and Cognitive Processing Therapy for PTSD and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia.  In addition, the CDP has an extensive catalog of training and education modules and expert staff trainers available for seminars and one day workshops that can be offered throughout the United States and at overseas military bases.  

Deployment Behavioral Health Psychologists assigned to each of the eleven APA accredited, military psychology internship sites function as an integral part of the internship training staff and have the mission of training tomorrow’s military psychologists and social workers in deployment related psychological health and traumatic brain injury issues.  These staff members also work in the local communities to promote community involvement in Service member reintegration and train local providers to work with Service members and their families, enhancing the behavioral health services offered by the Military Treatment Facility. The DBHP’s act as regional subject matter experts and are often called upon to advise commanders and local leaders on deployment related behavioral health issues.

Through this website the CDP provides web-based training along with webinars and podcasts for helping professionals working with Service members and their families.   The goal of the website is to provide a place where professionals can obtain information about upcoming CDP training opportunities, the latest research pertaining to deployment related mental health issues, and links to additional educational resources.  In addition, the website offers a “Providers only” area for clinicians who have attended a training through the CDP.  This area offers the opportunity for clinicians to receive consultation from CDP experts on treatment of PTSD and Insomnia and also a chance to collaborate with their peers around the world on treatment issues.  The website’s Blog, “CDP Perspectives” will update providers on recommended reading, new research and areas of interest from CDP Staff.