CSF Clusters of FUBAR

CSF Clusters of FUBAR
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 21, 2014

USA TODAY reported Comprehensive Soldier Fitness price was $125 million

The Army began the program in 2009 amid increasing cases of suicide and mental illness. It has cost $125 million to teach the coping skills to a million soldiers.

"Lt. Col. Justin Platt, an Army spokesman, said the program was redesigned in recent years and is not now intended as a way of preventing illnesses such as PTSD or depression.

When it was started in 2009, it was supposed to be a "long-term preventative health strategy." New goals released last year are now more generally worded. One of them, for example, says the program should provide soldier and families with "self-awareness and psychological resources and skills to cope with adversity and thrive in their lives."

This was reported by the LA Times $50 million a year

"A lot of their programs don’t have any good data behind them," said Kenneth Warner, a professor of public health at the University of Michigan who led the Institute of Medicine committee that produced the report. "We remain uncertain about which approaches work and which ones are ineffective."

The 291-page report was especially critical of the Pentagon’s biggest and costliest prevention program, known as Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness, which is used throughout the Army.

Based on the principles of positive psychology, it includes training in assertiveness, negotiation and coping strategies such as maintaining an optimistic outlook on life. About 900,000 soldiers receive the training each year at a cost of $50 million. The program was recently expanded to include families of service members.

That may sound like a lot of money but that isn't close to how much money was spent on this.

NBC reported on this failure with

"One obvious example of an unproven and controversial approach is the Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness program, which includes a mandatory online training program developed with the American Psychological Association, the report finds."

But did not seem interested in the fact the man responsible for this program had developed it as a research project to give school aged children a better sense of self-estime. A research project? Yes. He was also president of the American Psychological Association.

From The Warrior SAW Suicides After War

One of the issues they found was that CSF was “embraced” by the American Psychological Association and Martin Seligman was past president. Why is he important? Because this was his program and he received a $31 million dollar no-bid contract to implement and run the program. (The publication is still online as of the writing of this book.) This really nails it. “ At minimum, they should issue an unambiguous and widely disseminated statement acknowledging that the report is seriously flawed an that, as a result, the verdict is still out as to where CSF actually works.”

It is very difficult for me to take my emotions out of this. I have had too many veterans and family members contacting me for help because of this. Here are the cold, hard facts.

2006, 2007, 2008 2009
$2.7 million Baylor Texas A and M Army Medical Research Project for PTSD
$1.6 million Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital received Monday the mock check of a $2.7 million was handed over to a contractor to make phone calls. Yep~phone calls! 570,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan were supposed to be called to find out why they hadn’t gone to the VA.
$50 Million study by the National Institute for Mental Health for practical interventions for mitigating suicides and enhancing Soldier resiliency
$1.4 Billion We initiated programs to better diagnose and treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injury and other injuries through advanced medical research. We also have made investments in upgrading our clinics and hospitals including a $1.4 Billion investment in new hospitals at Forts Riley, Benning, and Hood.
$500 Million in additional psychological health providers, new facilities, and world-class research
$1.5 Billion to Army Family programs
$50 million research program into the factors behind soldier suicides and how to prevent them, Army Secretary Pete Geren told reporters at the Pentagon.
$1.97 million Defense Department study.“The Army's alarming suicide trend continues this year, said David Rudd
$34 million University of Pennsylvania no-bid contract to develop Comprehensive Soldier Fitness and run it.

But that is just the start of all of this. Every branch has also spent billions on the same "efforts" that failed. Money came from each branch, plus the Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Institute of Mental Health, grants and a growing list of colleges and universities receiving grants. Much like the University of Kentucky receiving $677,000 for a two year study to discover how 100 families felt after their veteran committed suicide.

The rest is in The Warrior SAW. The government has also been spending billions on "addressing" veterans committing suicide and treating PTSD. We have also seen more of them committing suicide along with a dramatic rise in younger veterans committing suicide. What we have seen as a result of all these "efforts" is the money keeps going out but no one is held accountable for the money and lives they have already lost.