The Navy Operational Stress Control (OSC) program was initiated in 2008 to prevent stress injuries by building solid psychological resilience in Sailors, their families, and their units; decrease negative attitudes associated with seeking care for stress-related injuries; foster effective responses to stress reactions; and work to facilitate healing from stress injuries with the goal of providing the right level of support to keep the Sailor in his or her command. 
 
The Navy OSC provided a valuable framework for Sailors, commands, and families by:
 

• Developing an understanding of stress and ways to mitigate its effects;

• Creating a culture supportive of psychological health;

• Providing decision making tools for Sailors, leaders, family members, and providers;

• Ensuring an integrated, evidence-based approach to addressing stress reactions, injuries, and illnesses;

• Shift the focus from reacting to chronic effects of stress towards organizational and personal resource management to prevent and moderate stress;

• Coordinating leadership, counseling, religious ministry, medical, and civilian elements to provide seamless support, assistance, and treatment eliminating redundancy and gaps

• Ensuring training programs are constantly evaluated and updated to improve the adoption of these policies and procedures within the Navy

 
The 2008 Navy OSC program was an important step forward in that it recognized a continuum of stress responses ranging from optimal wellness to diagnosable illness and encouraged sailors, leaders, and families will take a greater role in fostering and maintaining psychological health.
By learning the OSC principles, applying good leadership, and building experience the OSC program built mission-ready Sailors, commands, and families.
 
By 2013 the OSC program had was being modified by Navy Medicine into a program called Caregiver Operational Stress Control or CgOSC. This adaptation was a critical development and came with additional content focused on resilience building as well as peer support and unit assessment. In 2016, elements of the program were adapted again for the needs of Fleet and Family Support centers becoming Mind Body Mental Fitness. This approach used evidence base practices to build resilience and stress navigation techniques that went beyond the needs of the warfighter and could be applied to navigate stress during a variety of non-operational activities as well.

In 2020, the Naval Center for Combat and Operational Stress Control, in conjunction with OPNAV N17 examined the best available evidence-based practices and proven operational concepts to develop the latest iteration of resilience curriculum known as Expanded Operational stress Control. This product has been the subject of a pilot program to study its utility in the fleet and in now being rolled out across the Navy in 2021.