BTM164 - Ronald Rutherford - VA's Whole Health Program

Behind The Mission

Show Summary

On today’s episode, we feature a conversation with Navy Veteran Ronald Rutherford, the Lead for the Whole Health Outreach program for the Veterans Health Administration. Whole Health is VA’s approach to care that supports the health and well-being of veterans they serve, and focuses on self-care, skill building and support.

About Today’s Guest

Ronald “Ron” Rutherford is the Lead for Whole Health Outreach with the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Patient Centered Care & Cultural Transformation (OPCC&CT). Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he is responsible for liaising with non-governmental and Veteran Service Organizations for the purposes of bringing awareness to VHA’s Whole Health offerings for Veterans and their families. Ron joined OPCC&CT in November 2011 as a Field Implementation Consultant for VA medical facilities in Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Prior to joining VHA, he served 26 years on active duty in the U.S. Navy and retired as a Senior Chief Hospital Corpsman. As an Independent Duty Hospital Corpsman, Ron served on multiple ships as the primary healthcare provider and healthcare consultant for Occupational and Environmental health programs. During his time in the Navy, he also managed short based and overseas medical facilities, and his last assignment involved managing 11 shipboard medical departments and their staff in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Ron has a BSHS in Clinical Health Science (Pre-Physician Assistant Studies) and a MSHS in Healthcare Management from The George Washington University.

Links Mentioned In This Episode

VA Whole Health Program Website

Whole Health Program Points of Contact at local VA Facilities

Complementary and Integrative Health Overview and Descriptions

PsychArmor Resource of the Week

This week’s PsychArmor resource of the week is the PsychArmor course Communicating With Veterans. This course discusses how to communicate effectively with Veterans using communication tools, such as open-ended questions, affirmations, and reflections.

You can see find the course here: https://learn.psycharmor.org/courses/communicating-with-veterans

This Episode Sponsored By:

This episode is sponsored by PsychArmor. PsychArmor is the premier education and learning ecosystems specializing in military culture content PsychArmor offers an. Online e-learning laboratory that is free to individual learners as well as custom training options for organizations.

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Theme Music

Our theme music Don’t Kill the Messenger was written and performed by Navy Veteran Jerry Maniscalco, in cooperation with Operation Encore, a non profit committed to supporting singer/songwriter and musicians across the military and Veteran communities.

Producer and Host Duane France is a retired Army Noncommissioned Officer, combat veteran, and clinical mental health counselor for service members, veterans, and their families. You can find more about the work that he is doing at www.veteranmentalhealth.com