Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Grant: Addressing Workplace Violence in the Military

US Warfighters endure increasingly demanding and high tempo conditions both in garrison and in the combat field of operations in order to keep pace with ongoing wartime mission requirements. In addition to the loss of lives overseas in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other theatre of operations, Warfighters have lost their lives on an Army post stemming from acts of violence in the workplace. The tragic shooting of military personnel at Fort Hood in November 2009 highlighted the need for the DoD to thoroughly review its approach to force health protection and to broaden their historical focus on hostile external threats. The DoD force protection policies, programs, and procedures need to be improved and integrated into a cohesive and comprehensive approach.

This Program Announcement stems directly from recommendations yielded from the Independent Review Related to Fort Hood. Specifically, the Independent Review determined that DoD programs, policies, process and procedures that address identification of indicators for violence and radicalization are outdated, incomplete, and fail to include key indicators of potentially violent behaviors. It was also determined that currently the DoD has no risk assessment system available to supervisors and commanders to assist them in the identification, mitigation, and tracking of internal threats. The Independent Review also outlined actions needed to identify behavioral indicators of violence.

The primary focus of this Program Announcement is behavioral-based predictors of potential targeted acts of violence in the workplace. Targeted violence refers to deliberate and planned violent acts toward a specific target or set of targets. Such acts may also include threatening or intimidating behavior as precursors to the intended violent activity. Targeted violent behavior is not to be confused with random or impulsive violent acts. The intent of this Program Announcement is not to focus on targeted acts of violence that have previously been extensively studied (e.g., acts of terrorism, sexual assault, child abuse).

The primary environment for both studies is the occupational setting. Domestic violence and child abuse are not a primary focus; however, they may constitute a component of workplace violence if the individual is in uniform as they are considered on duty 24/7, and/or if the physical assault occurs in garrison. While not the primary focus, it is expected that the results of both the prospective and retrospective studies will yield data and information that will be valuable to civilian authorities and mental health professionals as they develop policies and protocols to address an ever-increasingly violent society. The public purpose/military relevance of this research is that it is anticipated to lead to approaches that would help to mitigate the risk of potential targeted violence in the workplace.