HEAC Success Stories

Achievements / Publications

Three Prestigious Awards for the Defense Center of Excellence (DCOE) for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury and the CCSI DCOE Communication Team

Using innovative social media tools, CCSi and its customer, the Defense Centers of Excellence initiated a ground-breaking program that assists uniformed service members, veterans, and their families; by providing vital information on available programs and resources related to Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury. As of April 12, 2011 our joint efforts have been recognized with three prestigious awards:

• Annual Act-IAC Excellence.Gov Award – Honoring programs that have pushed the boundaries of innovation, quality, and overall effectiveness of the federal government's management and use of IT to improve services to citizens, enhance government operations, and provide a more open and transparent government.
• Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) Bethesda Chapter Outstanding Achievement Award for Social Media.
• The Silver Award by the League of American Communications Professionals (LACP) as part of its 2010 Vision Awards in the Annual Report Competition which included over 5000 entries from public and private entities worldwide. DCoE was cited for the second year in a row for excellence in the development of its annual report for the past fiscal year.

League of American Communications Professionals (LACP)

On July 12, 2010, the League of American Communications Professionals (LACP) announced the winners of its annual Vision Awards Annual Report Competition. The Department of Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) 2009 Annual Report won a Platinum Level Award in the Government - City, State, National Category. In addition, the Report won a Bronze Level Award for Most Engaging in the Americas Region.

The CCSi communications team was responsible for writing and producing the majority of this Report. The Report describes in detail DCoE's first two years of purpose and progress, including its accomplishments in standardizing the quality of treatments for psychological health and traumatic brain injury for our nation's Warriors. The Report also details the achievements of each DCoE component Center and provides information about future initiatives that will improve standards of care.

The LACP Vision Awards Annual Report Competition is the world's largest annual report competition, and in 2009 drew one of the largest submissions ever, representing a broad range of industries and organizational sizes. More than 4,000 entries representing upwards of 20 countries were received. The LACP was established in 2001 in order to create a forum within the public relations industry that facilitates discussion of best-in-class practices within the profession while also recognizing those who demonstrate exemplary communications capabilities.

The 2009 DCoE Annual Report received a total score of 97 out of a possible 100, and was highlighted as a Top 100 report.

VA My HealtheVet (MHV) Program Office and Veterans and Consumers Health Informatics Office (V/CHIO)

CCSi has led the VA My HealtheVet (MHV) and Veterans and Consumers Health Informatics Office (V/CHIO) program management offices in developing strategies for preparing MHV for certification, including comprehensive Alignment and Verification and Validation (V&V) activities encompassing the entire MHV System. These strategies ensured a continuous, objective, and timely assessment of the MHV Personal Health Record (PHR) product(s) and the processes through which PHRs are developed and delivered. Additionally, our efforts ensured that the emerging MHV PHR was/is aligned with industry best practices and certification requirements.

Mental Health Task Force (MHTF)

Per the 2006 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Conference Report, Subtitle C, Section 723, the Secretary of Defense established within the Department of Defense (DoD) a Mental Health Task Force (MHTF) to examine matters relating to mental health and the Armed Forces. The assessment and recommendations, including recommendations for legislative or administrative action, were to include measures to improve 16 specific elements relating to the Armed Forces' mental health services. To accomplish this task, a MHTF was established as a subcommittee of the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board (AFEB, now the Defense Health Board), with the objective to determine the status of mental health services within the Military Health System (MHS), and draft recommendations for improvement.

In support of this Congressionally-mandated MHTF, the CCSi team played an integral role in nearly every aspect of the Task Force's activities, which included filling the role of the MHTF Executive Secretary. More specifically, CCSi's scope of support included project management and administrative, logistical, scientific, editorial, and publishing support. The CCSi team orchestrated and provided on-site support for site visits to 38 military installations throughout the world, during which Task Force delegations engaged the full continuum of military psychological health stakeholders. The team also coordinated all Task Force and subgroup meetings, teleconferences, and informational briefings. CCSi also managed the Task Force's media interface, including administration and maintenance of two web sites, and conducted extensive literature reviews and analyses on a variety of topics ranging from beneficiary mortality to financial and budgetary data. Further, the CCSi team was intimately involved throughout the development of the Task Force's culminating report to Congress, contributing to, editing, and coordinating the publication of the comprehensive final document.

DoD Disability Evaluation System (DES)

In 2008, the Department of Defense was tasked by Congress in the National Defense Authorization Act to improve the DoD Disability Evaluation System (DES). In support of the Director, Military Public Health, Clinical and Program Policy, OASD (Health Affairs), CCSi was instrumental in the development of a pilot project between the DoD and the VA for a Joint disability processing system. Under the pilot, Service Members received a single interagency Disability Evaluation / Transition medical examination. The goals of the Joint DES Pilot Project were to improve the timeliness, effectiveness, transparency, and resource utilization in the evaluation of Service Members identified as not meeting Service retention standards. CCSi personnel mapped out various processes of the DES; articulated system requirements and identified legacy systems capable of capturing data for process evaluation; coordinated actions initiated by the Director; analyzed data; prepared draft policies, implementing procedures and other documents such as the Memorandum of Agreement between the DoD and the VA; and reviewed and made comments to the draft documents, pertaining to the DES.

National Capital Region (NCR) Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Health Systems Advisory Subcommittee

CCSi's Defense Health Board Program Support team provided management support and scientific and analytical expertise to the National Capital Region (NCR) Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Health Systems Advisory Subcommittee. This support entailed facilitation and coordination, exhaustive literature reviews, scientific insight, and document development in order to ensure that the Subcommittee was able to submit the Congressional Report in January of 2009.

Department of Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE)

CCSi co-lead all social media efforts, including the launch of tools, for the Department of Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE). Through the use social and online media, both the Army and the DCoE has been able to extend its reach and more effectively and efficiently communicate directly with its audience. Through the use of bloggers' roundtables, CCSi has used a new vehicle to reach audiences that have either turned away from traditional news media sources or were looking for independent verification of news reporting (the immediacy of electronic communications has allowed these organizations to get its story out faster to a wider audience, and also to correct inaccuracies in reporting within the same news cycle). CCSi developed the overarching strategy and tactical plan for utilizing social media platforms to directly reach the public with messages on mental health and traumatic brain injury. In a nine-month time period, the DCoE Facebook page collected 2,750 "fans" of DCoE while sharing DCoE's mission, vision, accomplishments, and objectives with the public. The DCoE's primary Facebook audience includes Service members, Veterans, military families, and health care professionals. Additionally, CCSi uses social media platforms to support communications efforts for the DCoE, reaching all services, VA, and health care partners. CCSi established direct relationships with over 15 organizations, including but not limited to DoD, VA, SAMHSA, Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines, National Guard, Military Health System, TRICARE, Walter Reed and Military Pathways to share information, data, and critical resources on PH and TBI. Additionally, CCSi co-led the development of the SOP document to guide use of social media at DCoE. Finally, CCSi developed Google forms to track and manage data used in social media, and is responsible for producing and posting blog entries on behalf of the Deputy Director.