Veterans Day: HSL Supports Military Health

As we celebrate Veterans Day and the UNC-Chapel Hill campus buzzes with excited for the 2011 Carrier Classic, the UNC Health Sciences Library (HSL) also wants to draw attention to the health affairs resources that our librarians are proud to maintain for members of the military.

For several years, the HSL’s NC Health Info* has managed “Veterans’ Health” pages as a result of a partnership with Citizen Soldier Support Program* (CSSP).

Beyond these resources, Christie Silbajoris, director of HSL’s NC Health Info, recently served on the NC Institute of Medicine (NCIOM) Task Force on “Behavioral Health Services for the Military and Their Families” established by the North General Assembly.  Silbajoris was also asked to write a resource guide for the NC Journal of Medicine for their upcoming article on this topic.  The length of the guide had to be reduced for the journal.  As a result the NCIOM decided to publish the guide in its entirety as an appendix to their final report to the General Assembly. Scott O’Brien, the editor of the journal issue, had this to say about the resource guide in a message to Silbajoris: “I’m very impressed by the breadth of the list you’ve compiled. I’ve been discussing this issue with my father, who served in the Marine Corps infantry in Vietnam. He’s pleased about the wealth of services currently available to military personnel and their families and proud of the efforts you and others have invested in promoting and providing these resources.”

*About CSSP and NC Health Info

The CSSP is a congressionally authorized, federally funded grant administered through the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. CSSP is a capacity-building initiative designed to strengthen community support for National Guard and Reserve Component Members and their families. CSSP focuses on increasing geographic and financial access to deployment and post-deployment related behavioral health services, especially for those living in rural areas.

NC Health Info is funded by and a service of the HSL that provides an online guide to web sites of quality health and medical information and local health services throughout North Carolina. NC Health Info has an established history of meeting the health information needs and interests of English and Spanish speaking North Carolinians and leading users to resources that are reliable and easy to understand.