Dysfunction at the VA

Dr. Chris Frueh

We're back with another foray into some topics that are often considered outside the scope of military human performance but play important roles in whether these programs achieve their goals: mental health, veteran healthcare, and the veteran disability system. Our guest brings 15 years of experience working as a clinical psychologist in the VA, plus extensive work on multiple initiatives with the special operations community.

Christopher Frueh, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist by training and Professor of Psychology at the University of Hawaii. He has over thirty years of professional experience working with military veterans and active-duty personnel and has conducted clinical trials, epidemiology, historical, and neuroscience research. He has co-authored over 300 scientific publications, including a graduate textbook on adult psychopathology.

His work on “Operator Syndrome” is helping change how we understand and treat the complex set of interrelated health, psychological, and interpersonal difficulties that are common downstream outcomes of a career in military special operations. He has advisory roles with SEAL Future Foundation, Boulder Crest Foundation, Military Special Operations Family Collaborative, The Mission Within, VETS, Inc., Quick Reaction Foundation, and the military special operations community in general.

We're going to have him back in a couple of months to focus on Operator Syndrome because he has a book on the topic coming out, but on this episode, we're focusing on his time at the VA, where he worked from 1991-2006. Specifically, we're digging into how the VA approaches mental health.

He has testified before US Congress and served as a paid contractor for the Department of Defense, Veterans Affairs, the US State Department, and the National Board of Medical Examiners. He has also been published, quoted, and cited in a huge range of publications including commentaries in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Reuters, and many others.

We strongly recommend listening to our episode with Dan Gade or reading his book if this topic interests you. You'll hear both referenced a few times throughout this conversation.

Here are a few of the references he mentioned during the episode:

Kessler et al, 2005 - a large-scale investigation of lifetime prevalence of mental health disorders.

Frueh et al, 2005 - Chris' own research that the VA attempted to prevent from being published