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Dental health is an especially important part of an Airman's Total Force Fitness program. Poor dental health can be a potential marker for underlying medical illness and can impact readiness. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Lakisha A. Croley)
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Chairman's Total Force Fitness program consolidates focus
Posted 7/27/2011
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Commentary by Chief Master Sgt. Charlie Cole
Chief, Air Force Surgeon General Medical Enlisted Force
7/27/2011 - WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- Today's Airman lives in a fast-paced world.
Everything that touches your personal life and the world you work in is connected and designed for speed and performance.
Think of the F-22 Raptor. As awesome as this high-tech piece of equipment is, it can't reach its full potential without support and integration with other elements. There's the pilot who has to fly the plane, the aircrew flying the air refueling aircraft, the air traffic controllers and the maintenance teams and weapons crew just to name a few.
All of these different elements or domains must be coordinated and integrated to optimize the performance of what is at the most basic level: a plane. But, when all these elements are combined, it's not just a plane, it's one of the most advanced and lethal aircraft in the air.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has recognized we need to put the same level of thought, effort and coordination into our most valuable and lethal weapon in our arsenal: you. That's why, in the summer of 2010, Mullen asked the service leaders to "help me help our troops and their families." The end result is the Chairman's Total Force Fitness, or TFF, program.
Traditionally, the military's approaches to your well being were individual components that were not truly coordinated, and seldom interacted with each other. The TFF program is designed to change that. Just as all the support pieces must be coordinated to transform the F-22 from "just a plane" to an awesome fighting machine, the different elements required to support you need to be coordinated to transform Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors and Marines from individual service members into an awesome fighting machine.
To do this, eight areas of well-being are addressed in TFF: social, physical, environmental, behavioral, psychological, nutritional and medical and dental. Combined, they create an awesome you: healthier, more capable and more resistant to disease and stress.
Take, for instance, one domain, the medical and dental domain, and look at how it impacts you.
Of course, we are familiar with immunizations, health assessments, screenings and lab tests, all the things that we come to associate with a visit to our medical treatment facility. Pretty standard stuff on the surface, but what many don't realize is how all of this is evolving into something just as high tech as the Raptor.
One such change is called the "patient centered medical home." The PCMH shifts the focus away from a traditional health-care model that took care of you after you became sick or injured, to one that focuses on health and preventing or reducing the risk of getting sick or injured.
Under the old method of health care you were often a passive participant. Under PCMH, you and your family are active participants in your health care. PCMH changes, such as working to ensure you have continuity with your care provider to build trust and making sure prevention plays a key role in the primary, secondary and tertiary levels of care. If you haven't already noticed, health care prevention has been elevated to the same level of importance as preventive maintenance in an F-16 Fighting Falcon. It's a smart way to do business.
Another change that you won't see directly but certainly will feel the impact of is your medical teams' collaboration with other health care professionals and researchers. All across the services, the VA and other health care organizations the buzz phrase is "sharing knowledge and information."
For example, your health care records are with you in Minot Air Force Base, N.D. While assigned there you take leave and go to Disney World in Florida, where you become sick and need care. Not to worry, as everything needed to help treat you in Florida should be available electronically or can be requested and sent by your care providers in Minot AFB, all at the speed of light. Now that's high speed.
To assist you in preparing for deployments, your medical and dental team is actively engaged in assessing and screening to make sure you are free of contagious diseases that would likely endanger the health of other personnel. The medics also make sure you are free of medical conditions or physical defects that would require excessive lost duty time for treatments or hospitalization or would likely result in separation from the military for medical unfitness.
The goal is to ensure you are medically capable of satisfactorily completing any and all required training; capable of performing duties without aggravation of existing physical defects or medical conditions. In addition, your health team will screen for known and suspected behavioral and disease risk factors.
Dental health is also an especially important piece of this area of TFF. Poor dental health can be a potential marker for underlying medical illness and can critically impact your readiness and ultimate success on the battlefield. Therefore, preventive dentistry, like preventive medicine, plays a large a significant role in keeping you healthy and ready for deployment.
If you are getting ready to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan, your medical or dental professional will refer to Modification 9 of the U.S. Central Command Individual Protection and Individual/Unit Deployment Policy. Modification 9 pertains specifically to medical and dental fitness in the CENTCOM area of operations, and is currently used by medical providers to establish who is medically fit to deploy to the current theater of war operations, and what medical protections are required: e.g. malaria prophylaxis, medications, routine immunizations, protective eyewear, etc.
The challenge for your leaders and you is to recognize that mind and body do not function independently. Any stress on you and the force requires this new paradigm as the nation moves forward into future conflicts of the twenty first century. Medical and dental fitness represents one component of a warfighter's TFF assessment. Failing to recognize the presence of the other domains limits you and your commander's true knowledge of your readiness.
(Richard Keller, from the Tricare Management Agency, contributed to this article)
NOTE: Warrior Resilience Conference IV "Restoring Readiness: Individual, Unit, Community and Family" will be held March 29 and 30, 2012, at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C.
For more information contact: alyson.glick@us.pwc.com or follow them on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Total-Force-Fitness/198757523496266.
To follow the Air Force Medical Service on Facebook please visit: https://www.facebook.com/airforcemedicalservice.
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