Troiani at cutting edge of military psych

In 2008, as America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were raging, Dr. Joseph E. Troiani identified a major problem: There weren’t enough qualified psychology professionals to help returning service members.

“We were already about seven years into the war and I had the realization that we didn’t have enough trained clinical psychologists to work with and address various mental health issues of returning veterans,” Troiani says.

Troiani was exceptionally well qualified to make his assessment. He has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and since 1993 had both served as the director of behavioral health programs for the Will County Health Department and taught on the faculty at the Adler School of Professional Psychology. On top of his professional work, he had served in the Navy since 1978, first as an enlisted intelligence specialist and then as a reserve commission officer in intelligence, where he applied the analytical and psychological skills from his civilian life to Naval intelligence.

So he sat down with Dr. Wendy Paszkiewicz, then a senior vice president of academic affairs at Adler University, and started drawing plans for a specialization program that eventually became the Military Clinical Psychology Emphasis in the Psy.D. Program.

Based on the success of that program, which was the first of its kind at a traditional university, in 2013 Troiani also developed an online master’s degree program in military psychology.

The programs prepare students for work with military personnel, retirees, veterans and their families.

In recognition of all the good that graduates of the programs have done in the years since, this summer the American Psychological Association named Troiani a Fellow. It’s a distinction that only around 8 percent of the more than 172,000 APA members will earn in their careers.

“I was pleasantly surprised,” Troiani says of the honor. “I was always like ‘Oh no, I’d never get that.”

Paul T. Bartone, an APA Fellow and Retired Colonel in the US Army, supported Troiani’s nomination for the distinction.

“Over the last 20+ years, these programs have graduated scores of highly motivated psychologists who have gone on to provide essential psychological services to the active duty military population, veterans, and military family members,” Bartone says. “Many graduates of the Adler program are now serving in key leadership positions across the U.S. military.”

Bartone also praised Troiani’s gifts as an educator.

“Dr. Troiani is a master teacher, universally loved by his students of all ages,” Bartone says. “He mentors with gentle modesty and good humor, a style that clearly resonates with the many students who seem to hover around him.”

When asked to reflect on what has surprised him most about the two programs he founded, Troiani says it has been all that his students have achieved out in the world.

“Some of my students already have the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, some are training directors within military posts,” Troiani says. “Two graduates have wound up as the chief psychologists at their states National Guard.”

Most of the students go on to work for the VA, which is the largest employer of clinical psychologists in the country. Troiani says the VA loves hiring graduates of the Adler programs.

“Our people are walking in the front door trained, they know what they’re doing,” Troiani says. “A number of our students are also veterans themselves and they want to go back and work with their fellow veterans.”

Some students in Troiani’s programs are there on special military scholarships that require them to be commissioned as officers after they graduate and go into active service.

“I know of three students who served as combat psychologists in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Troiani says. “If embedded with an infantry unit, they provide mental healthcare and support to their fellow soldiers and also work as a consultant to the command.”

Graduates of the program have also worked at major military healthcare centers and on some bases or even Navy aircraft carriers.

“A number of my students have done a deployment on a carrier. That means you are out at sea taking care of the mental health needs of 4,000 to 5,000 thousand young people on the ship,” Troiani says. “They keep quite busy!”

Unfortunately, the need for mental health professionals serving the military community remains dire. A published study in December found that self-reports diagnoses of mental health problems among active-duty service members leaving the military was nearly 40%.  Anxiety disorders, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder accounted for the largest increase in diagnoses.

“The need for psychologists in the military is absolutely tremendous,” Troiani says.