Guardian Resilience Teams promote holistic well being, tradition of health > Vandenberg Space Force Base > Article Display

FALLS CHURCH, Va. — As the nation’s latest navy service, the Space Force continues to refine how Guardians meet the calls for of working in, from and to the area area. This evolution aligns with the Department of War’s broader shift towards managing the warfighter with the identical rigor and accountability utilized to any mission‑vital functionality – emphasizing disciplined analysis, sustained efficiency, and lengthy‑time period readiness.

Central to that effort is a transition from conventional health fashions to Holistic Health Approach, an built-in and preventative method that prioritizes the enduring well being, efficiency and resilience of Guardians.

The U.S. Space Force established health‑for‑obligation requirements in its first Human Performance and Readiness guide, SPFMAN 36-2905, in September 2025, introducing management actions on the unit and squadron ranges to additional develop the service’s Holistic Health Approach.

What is the Holistic Health Approach?

In 2023, U.S. Space Force Headquarters released a memo outlining HHA for uniformed Guardians and its three components: efficiency well being optimization practices, training, and a two‑yr, voluntary Continuous Fitness Assessment study with Air Force Research Laboratory, which is now in its second section referred to as CFA PRIME.

Department of the Air Force management acknowledges that bodily health alone can not maintain a pressure constructed on extremely specialised, cognitively demanding roles. Modern readiness requires a balanced method that strengthens bodily, psychological and cognitive efficiency collectively. HHA emphasizes the interdependence of those domains, treating cognitive efficiency as a core element of operational functionality.

“Space Force Guardians are cognitive performers,” mentioned Dr. Sarah Ward, holistic well being integrator assigned to the Space Force Quality of Life and Resilience Directorate, or S1Q, beneath Headquarters Space Force. “Evidence-based research and practice show the link between cognitive performance and cognitive health to physical performance and physical health. You can’t have one without the other.”

Ward leads two Guardian Resilience Teams that assist greater than 1,300 Guardians within the National Capital Region.

How Guardian Resilience Teams assist HHA practices

To assist this evolution, GRTs are embedded throughout the pressure to ship proactive, multidisciplinary care. Comprised of specialists in psychological well being, power and conditioning, psychological well being and bodily remedy, these groups information Guardians towards sustained efficiency and readiness throughout the Total Force.

Ward famous that GRTs characterize a deliberate shift from reactive care to a prevention‑centered mannequin. Instead of getting ready for periodic health assessments, Guardians are inspired to undertake constant, sustainable habits that scale back harm danger and improve lengthy‑time period readiness.

This method prioritizes life-style modifications that assist well being and efficiency all through a Guardian’s profession, reasonably than quick‑time period preparation for testing cycles.

GRTs additionally practice and certify Guardians to serve inside Space Force’s Unit Fitness Cell groups, reinforcing the Department’s expectation that leaders at each stage keep accountability for the bodily, psychological and cognitive readiness of their groups. These health cells operationalize HHA by delivering coaching, programming and individualized steerage aligned with nationwide train science requirements to assist Guardians meet mission necessities and keep wholesome.

A key element of the HHA program is using information‑pushed insights to tailor assist to every Guardian. Through wearable expertise and efficiency monitoring, GRTs assist people higher perceive their well being, alter behaviors and optimize efficiency primarily based on personalised metrics. This displays the DAF’s emphasis on leveraging fashionable expertise to take care of operational benefit.

This personalised, preventative mannequin aligns with the DAF’s broader culture of fitness initiative, which reframes bodily coaching as important to mission success reasonably than a standalone requirement.

Beyond bodily conditioning, GRTs tackle Guardian‑particular challenges, together with shift schedules and cognitively demanding operations. In the NCR area, Ward shared that GRTs typically present steerage on sleep hygiene, diet, stress administration and restoration methods to assist Guardians maintain efficiency of their mission environments.

“We know we can’t change shift work, so we teach them tips and tricks to the science so they can manage, recover, and heal better,” she mentioned.

Future outlook for GRT assist to Guardians

As consciousness of GRT providers grows, so does their utilization throughout the pressure. Ward mentioned that the elevated engagement she has seen displays each the demand for and the worth of their built-in assist.

The HHA program plans to require life-style drugs board certification for all GRT specialists to raised equip them with the information to optimize lengthy‑time period Guardian well being and resilience. Through this continued concentrate on holistic well being, the Space Force is reinforcing a tradition that treats health, cognitive efficiency and effectively‑being as foundational to readiness.

“We’re sitting for national board certifications in lifestyle medicine to make sure that we’re at the highest level of education to infuse those true lifestyle changes into the Guardian’s daily activities and duty days,” she mentioned.

According to Ward, by emphasizing prevention, personalization and efficiency, GRTs are constructing a extra resilient pressure ready to fulfill the challenges of an more and more advanced operational atmosphere. GRTs additionally assist the DAF’s dedication to sustaining a pressure that’s prepared, succesful and dominant over time.