PTSD in U.S. Veterans: The Role of Social Connectedness, Combat Experience and Discharge | MDPI
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Current research efforts include assessing the effects of combat and operations tempo (OPTEMPO) on soldier, family and unit readiness.
Current research efforts include assessing the effects of combat and operations tempo (OPTEMPO) on soldier, family and unit readiness.
Carl A. Castro is an associate professor, also serving as the director of the Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans & Military Families. Castro joined the faculty in 2013 after serving 33 years in the U.S. Army, where he obtained the rank of colonel. Castro began his military career as an infantryman in 1981. He served in a variety of research and leadership positions, including as director of the Military Operational Medicine Research Program, Headquarters, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, Fort Detrick, Maryland. Castro has completed two tours in Iraq, as well as peacekeeping missions to Saudi Arabia, Bosnia and Kosovo. He is currently chair of a NATO research group on military veteran transitions, a Fulbright Scholar and member of several Department of Defense research advisory panels focused on psychological health. He is the current editor of Military Behavioral Health, the flagship academic journal about the biopsychosocial health and well-being of service members, veterans and military families. Castro has authored more than 150 scientific articles and reports in numerous research areas. His current research efforts focus on assessing the effects of combat and operations tempo (OPTEMPO) on soldier, family and unit readiness, and evaluating the process of service members’ transitions from military to civilian life. To reference the work of Carl Castro online, we ask that you directly quote their work where possible and attribute it to "Carl Castro, a faculty at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work” (LINK: https://dworakpeck.usc.edu)
PTSD in U.S. Veterans: The Role of Social Connectedness, Combat Experience and Discharge | MDPI
How the Potential Benefits of Active Combat Events May Partially Offset Their Costs | International Journal of Stress Management
Research at the Tip of the Spear | Psychiatrists in Combat
Refining Trauma-Focused Treatments for Servicemembers and Veterans With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder | JAMA Psychiatry
As suicide rates among active-duty service members and veterans continue to outpace rates among the general population, researchers from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work have joined forces to use technology to identify, as early as possible, those at risk. The collaboration, as part of the USC Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society, or CAIS, is believed to be one of the first of its kind to use artificial intelligence to model the strength or weakness of military personnel’s social networks to ascertain suicidal thinking, depression and anxiety. The work by the USC interdisciplinary research team will be supported by a $600,000 grant from the Army Research Office. An estimated 8,000 military veterans commit suicide every year, according to a 2012 report issued by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Additionally, one active-duty member kills himself or herself every 36 hours, according to 2010 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Team members include: Milind Tambe and Eric Rice, co-founders of the USC Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society Carl Castro, associate professor of the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, retired U.S. Army colonel and research director for the USC Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans & Military Families Phebe Vayanos, assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering and computer science and associate director of CAIS. The team hopes to use the lessons learned from their study to increase early interventions for at-risk military personnel and veterans facing acute stress during transitional moments. These include deployment, returning home from service, joining and leaving the military, and transferring to a different duty assignment in the U.S. and abroad.