

Seven years of militaries operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, thousands of soldiers deployed, many of them wounded or killed, yet, just a few posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) cases. The Romanian Department of Military Psychology has developed a psychological support program for the troops, which starts three months prior to their deployment and ceases two months after they begin to work again in their back home units, which means almost an year of psychological presence among the soldiers, in their main military activities. The program begins with a psychological selection so only the determined and emotional stable soldiers are chosen for the mission. Before the deployment, the Romanian troops are psychological trained for the theater specific conditions and risks by giving them information about combat stress, PTSD, acute stress disorder, different ways of intervention and by gradually increasing the difficulty of the military exercises. The most important part of the program is the presence of the psychologist inside the deployment camp where he can immediately assist a soldier in order to decrease the tension of combat stress and to stop the symptoms from becoming chronicle. The last part is the post-mission psychological evaluation where the specialists could identify the presence of PTSD, anxiety and depression disorders. The importance of this psychological support program will be discussed; especially the crucial impact of the psychologist inside the deployment camp where early intervention is mandatory for decreasing the chances of PTSD debut.