Factors Preventing Active Duty Service Members from Utilizing Mental Health Services

Factors Preventing Active Duty Service Members from Utilizing Mental Health Services PDF Author: Suzanne Simmons
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Despite mental health resources being available to active duty military members, there continues to be a significant mental health crisis related to military service. Efforts have been made to identify mental health issues and expand resources available to service members and veterans. Following the changes, only one half of service members identified as having mental health issues seek mental health services and a mere on half of those complete treatment. The VA reports those seeking mental health services continue to have a high suicidality indicating even these individuals are not receiving enough assistance (US Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration (VA), n.d.). A common explanation for lack of psychiatric utilization has historically been stigma. This research is to identify other factors, specific to military culture, which are impeding appropriate treatment for active military personnel. The military has implemented measures to help reduce stigma, and implement education and policies to help increase utilization of mental health services, however there remains a deficit which continues to put our present and former military at risk. The purpose of this study is to identify and examine the relationship between the variables of command climate, warrior ethos, mental health literacy, stigma, and career consequences to active duty military utilizing mental health services.

Factors Preventing Active Duty Service Members from Utilizing Mental Health Services

Factors Preventing Active Duty Service Members from Utilizing Mental Health Services PDF Author: Suzanne Simmons
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description
Despite mental health resources being available to active duty military members, there continues to be a significant mental health crisis related to military service. Efforts have been made to identify mental health issues and expand resources available to service members and veterans. Following the changes, only one half of service members identified as having mental health issues seek mental health services and a mere on half of those complete treatment. The VA reports those seeking mental health services continue to have a high suicidality indicating even these individuals are not receiving enough assistance (US Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration (VA), n.d.). A common explanation for lack of psychiatric utilization has historically been stigma. This research is to identify other factors, specific to military culture, which are impeding appropriate treatment for active military personnel. The military has implemented measures to help reduce stigma, and implement education and policies to help increase utilization of mental health services, however there remains a deficit which continues to put our present and former military at risk. The purpose of this study is to identify and examine the relationship between the variables of command climate, warrior ethos, mental health literacy, stigma, and career consequences to active duty military utilizing mental health services.

Returning Home from Iraq and Afghanistan

Returning Home from Iraq and Afghanistan PDF Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309152852
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
Nearly 1.9 million U.S. troops have been deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq since October 2001. Many service members and veterans face serious challenges in readjusting to normal life after returning home. This initial book presents findings on the most critical challenges, and lays out the blueprint for the second phase of the study to determine how best to meet the needs of returning troops and their families.

Evaluation of the Department of Veterans Affairs Mental Health Services

Evaluation of the Department of Veterans Affairs Mental Health Services PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309466601
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 467

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Book Description
Approximately 4 million U.S. service members took part in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Shortly after troops started returning from their deployments, some active-duty service members and veterans began experiencing mental health problems. Given the stressors associated with war, it is not surprising that some service members developed such mental health conditions as posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and substance use disorder. Subsequent epidemiologic studies conducted on military and veteran populations that served in the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq provided scientific evidence that those who fought were in fact being diagnosed with mental illnesses and experiencing mental healthâ€"related outcomesâ€"in particular, suicideâ€"at a higher rate than the general population. This report provides a comprehensive assessment of the quality, capacity, and access to mental health care services for veterans who served in the Armed Forces in Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn. It includes an analysis of not only the quality and capacity of mental health care services within the Department of Veterans Affairs, but also barriers faced by patients in utilizing those services.

Assessing Fitness for Military Enlistment

Assessing Fitness for Military Enlistment PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309164877
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) faces short-term and long-term challenges in selecting and recruiting an enlisted force to meet personnel requirements associated with diverse and changing missions. The DoD has established standards for aptitudes/abilities, medical conditions, and physical fitness to be used in selecting recruits who are most likely to succeed in their jobs and complete the first term of service (generally 36 months). In 1999, the Committee on the Youth Population and Military Recruitment was established by the National Research Council (NRC) in response to a request from the DoD. One focus of the committee's work was to examine trends in the youth population relative to the needs of the military and the standards used to screen applicants to meet these needs. When the committee began its work in 1999, the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force had recently experienced recruiting shortfalls. By the early 2000s, all the Services were meeting their goals; however, in the first half of calendar year 2005, both the Army and the Marine Corps experienced recruiting difficulties and, in some months, shortfalls. When recruiting goals are not being met, scientific guidance is needed to inform policy decisions regarding the advisability of lowering standards and the impact of any change on training time and cost, job performance, attrition, and the health of the force. Assessing Fitness for Military Enlistment examines the current physical, medical, and mental health standards for military enlistment in light of (1) trends in the physical condition of the youth population; (2) medical advances for treating certain conditions, as well as knowledge of the typical course of chronic conditions as young people reach adulthood; (3) the role of basic training in physical conditioning; (4) the physical demands and working conditions of various jobs in today's military services; and (5) the measures that are used by the Services to characterize an individual's physical condition. The focus is on the enlistment of 18- to 24-year-olds and their first term of service.

Preventing Psychological Disorders in Service Members and Their Families

Preventing Psychological Disorders in Service Members and Their Families PDF Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309297184
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Being deployed to a war zone can result in numerous adverse psychological health conditions. It is well documented in the literature that there are high rates of psychological disorders among military personnel serving in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq as well as among the service members' families. For service members' families, the degree of hardship and negative consequences rises with the amount of the service members' exposure to traumatic or life-altering experiences. Adult and child members of the families of service members who experience wartime deployments have been found to be at increased risk for symptoms of psychological disorders and to be more likely to use mental health services. In an effort to provide early recognition and early intervention that meet the psychological health needs of service members and their families, DOD currently screens for many of these conditions at numerous points during the military life cycle, and it is implementing structural interventions that support the improved integration of military line personnel, non-medical caregivers, and clinicians, such as RESPECT-Mil (Re-engineering Systems of Primary Care Treatment in the Military), embedded mental health providers, and the Patient-Centered Medical Home. Preventing Psychological Disorders in Service Members and Their Families evaluates risk and protective factors in military and family populations and suggests that prevention strategies are needed at multiple levels - individual, interpersonal, institutional, community, and societal - in order to address the influence that these factors have on psychological health. This report reviews and critiques reintegration programs and prevention strategies for PTSD, depression, recovery support, and prevention of substance abuse, suicide, and interpersonal violence.

Handbook of Psychosocial Interventions for Veterans and Service Members

Handbook of Psychosocial Interventions for Veterans and Service Members PDF Author: Nathan D. Ainspan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199354006
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
The United States is in the midst of the largest military demobilization in its history. This is leading to an increase in the demand for mental health clinicians who can provide services to hundreds of thousands of military veterans and members of the military. Nearly two million Americans have been deployed to the wars in the Middle East, and thousands of them have been deeply affected, either psychologically, physically, or both. Projections suggest that 300,000 are returning with symptoms of PTSD or major Depression; 320,000 have been exposed to probable Traumatic Brain Injuries; and hundreds of thousands are dealing with psychological effects of physical injuries. Other veterans and members of the military without injuries will seek treatment to help them with the psychological impact of serving in the military, being deployed, or transitioning and reintegrating back into the civilian world. As an example, hundreds of thousands of service members are also leaving the armed forces earlier than they anticipated and will need to quickly adjust to life as civilians after assuming that they would have many more years in the military. Many will be leaving the military because of demobilizations and downsizing due to budget cuts. Current proposed cuts will shrink the military force to the same size it was in 1940. The Pew Center reports that 44% of veterans from the current wars are describing their readjustment to civilian life as "difficult," and many of them are and will be turning to civilian mental health and primary care clinicians for assistance. The Handbook of Psychosocial Interventions for Veterans and Service Members is a "one stop" handbook for non-military clinicians working with service members, veterans, and their families. It brings together experts from the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, veteran service organizations, and academia to create the first comprehensive guidebook for civilian clinicians. In addition to covering psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD, this book also offers information about psychosocial topics that impact military personnel and their loved ones and can become part of treatment (e.g., employment or education options, financial matters, and parenting concerns), providing the most recent and cutting-edge research on the topics. Chapters are concise and practical, delivering the key information necessary to orient clinicians to the special needs of veterans and their families. The Handbook of Psychosocial Interventions for Veterans and Service Members is an essential resource for private practice mental health clinicians and primary care physicians, as well as a useful adjunct for VA and DOD psychologists and staff.

Evaluation of the Department of Veterans Affairs Mental Health Services

Evaluation of the Department of Veterans Affairs Mental Health Services PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309466571
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 467

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Book Description
Approximately 4 million U.S. service members took part in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Shortly after troops started returning from their deployments, some active-duty service members and veterans began experiencing mental health problems. Given the stressors associated with war, it is not surprising that some service members developed such mental health conditions as posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and substance use disorder. Subsequent epidemiologic studies conducted on military and veteran populations that served in the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq provided scientific evidence that those who fought were in fact being diagnosed with mental illnesses and experiencing mental healthâ€"related outcomesâ€"in particular, suicideâ€"at a higher rate than the general population. This report provides a comprehensive assessment of the quality, capacity, and access to mental health care services for veterans who served in the Armed Forces in Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn. It includes an analysis of not only the quality and capacity of mental health care services within the Department of Veterans Affairs, but also barriers faced by patients in utilizing those services.

The Behavioral Health of Minority Active Duty Service Members

The Behavioral Health of Minority Active Duty Service Members PDF Author: Eunice C. Wong
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781977405654
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 138

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Book Description
Behavioral health disparities, in which socially disadvantaged groups such as racial/ethnic minorities, women, and sexual orientation minorities experience greater risk for certain mental health and substance use problems, are well documented in the general population. Less is known about whether similar behavioral health disparities exist among military service members. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) wanted to understand whether the behavioral health disparities seen in the civilian population also exist in the military, which is important to help DoD target its efforts to address the needs of service members and improve force readiness. To investigate this issue, RAND researchers examined the following: (1) whether minority group service members are more likely to experience mental health and substance use problems relative to their majority counterparts in the military and (2) whether minority-majority group differences in behavioral health within the military are similar or different from those in the civilian population. Any minority-majority group differences observed in the military were tested to see if they remain after accounting for sociocultural environmental factors (e.g., demographics, social support, harassment). Identifying where behavioral health disparities exist among military minority service groups and the factors that may be associated with observed disparities can help DoD better target efforts to address the behavioral health needs of its troops. Further, if minority group disparities are greater in the military than in the civilian population, this might signal the presence of factors specific to the military context that may exacerbate minority group service members' risk for behavioral health conditions. The study used data from the 2015 Health Related Behavior Survey (HRBS), the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), the 2015 and 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), and the 2015 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Behavioral health conditions included mental health (i.e., depression, suicide behaviors, posttraumatic stress disorder) and substance use (i.e., problematic alcohol use, tobacco use) outcomes.

Stigma as a Barrier to Military Mental Health Services

Stigma as a Barrier to Military Mental Health Services PDF Author: Alicea Gray
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Armed Forces
Languages : en
Pages : 59

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Book Description
A psychiatric disorder is perhaps an uncomfortable topic that isn’t discussed enough in the military. However, the nature of the profession (i.e., the possibility of combat exposure) increases the risk of mental health disorders in the military. Despite the increasing awareness of the effects of untreated mental health conditions, a treatment gap still exists within the military culture. The present study aims to describe the prevalence of stigma in the military, as well as examine related factors, such as leadership behaviors and the associations between endorsed and anticipated stigma and treatment seeking intentions. Utilizing a questionnaire, this study investigated the extent to which stigma exists in a sample of U.S Army active-duty soldiers. The goal of this study was to identify the factors that contributed to their reluctance to seek care. By understanding the dynamics of treatment seeking behaviors and the gaps associated with care, future policy changes can be made that focus on normalizing mental health treatment in the military.

Veteran and Military Mental Health

Veteran and Military Mental Health PDF Author: Christopher H. Warner
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031180097
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 445

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Book Description
This book addresses mental health treatment for veterans and active military personnel. In addition to examining foundational practices in the sub-field, it contains specifically tailored content concerning the recent collapse of the United States (US) installed Afghanistan government. The book is conscious of the myriad of complex emotions that veterans who fought for the past twenty years may be experiencing. Organized into four parts, the book begins with the foundations of veteran and military mental health culture as patients transition from active duty to veteran status, understand the present stigma and barriers to care and reflect on their deployment experience. Part two delves into the specifics of the healthcare system in which military personnel find themselves at various points in their career, including deployment and returning home. Following this, chapters examine the critically unique conditions found in patients, such as sleep disorders, traumatic brain injury, homelessness, substance abuse, and sexual trauma. The book closes with discussions on veterans and their families that focus on the effects of deployment on a military person’s loved ones and their mental state upon returning home. Timely, socially conscious, and comprehensive, the Clinical Manual on Veteran and Military Mental Health is an invaluable resource for mental health professionals receiving new military personnel patients and who have seen a significant shift in their patients due to recent events.