User:Contributor 122700/sandbox/Consortium on the Health and Readiness of Servicewomen

The Consortium on the Health and Readiness of Servicewomen (CHARS) is a multidisciplinary scientific research group, headquartered at the Naval Health Research Center on Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego, California, that conducts and supports empirical research on issues central to the health and readiness of servicewomen in the United States military. Members include scientists and experts in a variety of disciplines from the Army, Navy, and Air Force, as well as those in academic, government, and private organizations.

Origin
CHARS was conceptualized in 2013 by research psychologist Stephanie McWhorter to create an organized network of expert scientists and researchers who would work collaboratively to support gender-focused research and advance a research mission addressing the impact of military service on women to enhance overall military readiness. The consortium was founded during a time of significant military policy change affecting servicewomen and their families, including the end of the 1994 Direct Ground Combat Definition and Assignment Rule that excluded women from direct ground combat, the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, and the extension of benefits to same-sex spouses.

Overview
CHARS has a self-generated mandate to engage in gender-focused research on the health and readiness of military women. The attention given to gender-specific issues allows CHARS researchers to develop a contextualized understanding of men and women’s experiences surrounding many critical topics such as military sexual assault, operational stressors, mental and physical health, and deployment issues.

The overarching goals of CHARS are to:
 * Provide empirically based, gender-focused research to inform policy-making decisions and assess policy implications;
 * Engage in research to provide greater visibility to the United States Department of Defense and the United States Department of Veterans Affairs across the lifespan of servicewomen;
 * Disseminate research findings and offer solutions to promote the health, performance, and readiness of servicewomen; and
 * Promote collaborative research projects with partners from all military services, government, academia, research institutes, and non-profit organizations.

Research
CHARS’ work specifically examines operationally-relevant questions about factors affecting the career, health, and family of servicewomen. Research supported by the consortium is informed by many different perspectives, including public health and epidemiology; clinical, social, and neurocognitive psychology; family studies; physiology; and political science. Consortium member experience in gender-stratified research includes:


 * Military sexual trauma, including harassment and assault


 * Gender differences in operational and deployment stressors


 * Effects of deployment and other separations on military families


 * Integrating women into newly opened or nontraditional occupations and environments


 * Evaluation and assessment of health and physical performance


 * Gender-specific deployment health issues and solutions


 * Adverse childhood experiences, including physical and sexual abuse

Congress has recognized that assuring a safe and respectful work environment for all military personnel must be a high priority, so it ordered that efforts to prevent and respond to military sexual assault remain on-going under the Fiscal Year 2015 Defense Budget. In June 2014, CHARS was awarded a grant by the Tri-Service Nursing Research Program to examine gender differences in experiences of military sexual assault victimization.