American Psychological Association Presents This Presidential Citation To Division 19: The Society for Military Psycholog

On Friday 9 December 2022 at his final meeting as APA President, Dr. Frank Worrell presented a Presidential Citation to Drs William Brim and Andrea Israel on behalf of the efforts of Division 19 for their efforts in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  The day after Russia invaded Ukraine, Division 19 received a request from APA to support our colleagues in the National Psychological Association of Ukraine and behavioral health providers across Ukraine. Within the week division members had provided numerous resources, many of which were translated into Ukrainian, and disseminated via social media platforms and a website developed in collaboration with the Center for Deployment Psychology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences directly to providers in Ukraine.  This summer, Drs Brim and Israel collaborated with the Swiss Foundation for Innovation and the University of New Mexico’s Project ECHO to develop and deliver an eight-week, sixteen-session just in time training series for over 400 prehospital and emergency personnel in Ukraine based in part on materials provided by Division 19 members. Across the division we continue to provide needed support to behavioral health professionals in Ukraine because, as was stated by Ukrainian physician Dr. Oleh Berezyuk MD in a recent RSS webinar, “in Ukraine all psychologists are military psychologists”.