Mental Health Stigma in the Military

Mental Health Stigma in the Military PDF Author: Joie D. Acosta
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This report assesses the U.S. military's approach to reducing stigma for mental health disorders and their treatment, how well it is working, and how it might be improved. It presents priorities for program and policy development and research and evaluation to get service members the treatment they need as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Mental Health Stigma in the Military

Mental Health Stigma in the Military PDF Author: Joie D. Acosta
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This report assesses the U.S. military's approach to reducing stigma for mental health disorders and their treatment, how well it is working, and how it might be improved. It presents priorities for program and policy development and research and evaluation to get service members the treatment they need as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Mental Health Stigma in the Military

Mental Health Stigma in the Military PDF Author: Joie D. Acosta
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780833089991
Category : Mental health policy
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Despite the efforts of both the U.S. Department of Defense and the Veterans Health Administration to enhance mental health services, many service members are not regularly seeking needed care when they have mental health problems. Without appropriate treatment, these mental health problems can have wide-ranging and negative impacts on the quality of life and the social, emotional, and cognitive functioning of affected service members. The services have been actively engaged in developing policies, programs, and campaigns designed to reduce stigma and increase service members' help-seeking behavior. However, there has been no comprehensive assessment of these efforts' effectiveness and the extent to which they align with service members' needs or evidence-based practices. The goal of this research was to assess DoD's approach to stigma reduction, how well it is working and how it might be improved. To address these questions, RAND researchers used five complementary methods: (1) literature review, (2) a microsimulation modeling of costs, (3) interviews with program staff, (4) prospective policy analysis, and (5) an expert panel. The priorities outlined in this report identify ways in which program and policy development and research and evaluation can improve understanding of how best to efficiently and effectively provide needed treatment to service members with mental illness.

Military Mental Health Care

Military Mental Health Care PDF Author: Cheryl Lawhorne-Scott
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 1442220945
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Too often American veterans return from combat and spiral into depression, anger and loneliness they can neither share nor tackle on their own. Military Mental Health Care: A Guide for Service Members, Veterans, Families, and Community seeks to aid our troubled, returning forces by dissecting the numerous mental health problems they face upon arriving stateside. Don Philpott and Cheryl Lawhorne-Scott, co-authors with Janelle Hill of the highly successful Wounded Warrior Handbook, detail not only each issue’s symptoms, but also discuss what treatments are available, and the best ways for veterans to access those treatments while readjusting to civilian life. In addition, they connect and explain many alarming trends, such as joblessness, poverty and addiction, appearing in our nation’s veteran population on a broader scale. PTSD and struggles with anxiety affect far more than veterans themselves, as sobering phenomena like homelessness, suicide, domestic violence and divorce too often become realities for those returning from war. Military Mental Health Care is both a resource for struggling veterans and a useful tool for their loved ones, or anyone looking for ways to support the veterans in their lives.

An Phenomenological Study Exploring the Experiences of Active-duty Servicemembers Seeking Mental Health Treatment

An Phenomenological Study Exploring the Experiences of Active-duty Servicemembers Seeking Mental Health Treatment PDF Author: Philip Clinton Allen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Medicine, Military
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine the experiences of active-duty servicemembers regarding mental health stigma and help-seeking behavior. Due to the trauma of intense combat, military servicemembers experience mental health problems at an alarming rate, and despite increased awareness and access to mental health resources, they are still reluctant to seek treatment. This study explored the lived experiences of military servicemembers with an aim to address the following research question: “How do military service members experience overcoming mental health stigma and decide to seek treatment while still on active duty?” Thirteen participants from the United States Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps were administered interviews inquiring into their experiences with mental health via Zoom and phone. Themes emerged in two categories: “Stigma” and “Overcoming Stigma.” The associations of common themes between the two categories that included 50% or more of the 13 participants are presented. The three strongest themes participants recounted as factors that led to deciding to seek mental health services were the realization that professional help is needed to address mental health concerns, personal growth in deciding to seek mental health services and trust in others. Because of the intrinsic motivational nature of these factors, the researcher concluded that overcoming stigma is unteachable. However, there are practical ways to reduce external stigma in the military, including educating military leaders, servicemembers, and family members about mental health and the need for treatment if warranted.

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.

Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders

Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309439124
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 171

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Book Description
Estimates indicate that as many as 1 in 4 Americans will experience a mental health problem or will misuse alcohol or drugs in their lifetimes. These disorders are among the most highly stigmatized health conditions in the United States, and they remain barriers to full participation in society in areas as basic as education, housing, and employment. Improving the lives of people with mental health and substance abuse disorders has been a priority in the United States for more than 50 years. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 is considered a major turning point in America's efforts to improve behavioral healthcare. It ushered in an era of optimism and hope and laid the groundwork for the consumer movement and new models of recovery. The consumer movement gave voice to people with mental and substance use disorders and brought their perspectives and experience into national discussions about mental health. However over the same 50-year period, positive change in American public attitudes and beliefs about mental and substance use disorders has lagged behind these advances. Stigma is a complex social phenomenon based on a relationship between an attribute and a stereotype that assigns undesirable labels, qualities, and behaviors to a person with that attribute. Labeled individuals are then socially devalued, which leads to inequality and discrimination. This report contributes to national efforts to understand and change attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that can lead to stigma and discrimination. Changing stigma in a lasting way will require coordinated efforts, which are based on the best possible evidence, supported at the national level with multiyear funding, and planned and implemented by an effective coalition of representative stakeholders. Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders: The Evidence for Stigma Change explores stigma and discrimination faced by individuals with mental or substance use disorders and recommends effective strategies for reducing stigma and encouraging people to seek treatment and other supportive services. It offers a set of conclusions and recommendations about successful stigma change strategies and the research needed to inform and evaluate these efforts in the United States.

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.

Military Life

Military Life PDF Author: Thomas W. Britt
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313015090
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 1071

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Book Description
With global commitments and combat duty, our armed forces face life-threatening challenges on a daily basis. However, less visible threats also impact the mental health of our military men and women. Experts examine challenges on the battlefield, such as women coming to terms with life after being prisoners of war, or soldiers dealing with mistakenly killing civilians. But life in the armed forces presents less dramatic, daily challenges. Away from the front lines, soldiers have to raise their families, sometimes as single parents. Children have to learn what it's like to be in a military family, and to make sense of war. Gay or lesbian officers cope with a don't ask, don't tell policy. An unprecedented range of contributors—military officers, medical doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and professors—take us onto the bases and the battlefields and inside the minds of military personnel who face far greater challenges than most of us ever see in the headlines. These volumes also highlight factors that make members of the military resilient and stable, as well as programs and practices that can ease the psychological burdens of military personnel, families, and children. Readers can better understand how society views our military and military operations, and how each one of us can play a role in supporting our armed forces.

The Inside Battle

The Inside Battle PDF Author: Marjorie Morrison
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780615703671
Category : Post-traumatic stress disorder
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
Every day, a battle is being fought for the mental health of our military personnel.In this gripping expose, Marjorie Morrison, takes readers behind the lines to show us the crisis facing our military's mental healthcare system.When Morrison left her thriving private psychology practice for a three-month assignment at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, she hoped she would make a difference in the lives of Marines. She had no idea that it was she who would be changed.Those three months grew into a yearlong project, but the more Morrison tried to do her best for them, the more roadblocks she met. Despite the broken system, she was and is determined to help protect service member's mental health. The Inside Battle offers readers a glimpse into the current crisis through Morrison's personal experience and empowers them to make a difference in the lives of the men and women of the military.Marjorie Morrison has helped me to see that we have the power, the knowledge and most importantly the responsibility to protect each and every person who raises their hand and swears to protect our country. It is our duty as civilians ¦to fight for the men and women who fight for us. We know today how to support people before the stress happens so they don't have to come home broken.Debbie FordN.Y. Times best selling author of Why Good People Do Bad Things and co-author of The Shadow Effect

Military Veteran Psychological Health and Social Care

Military Veteran Psychological Health and Social Care PDF Author: Jamie Hacker Hughes
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1351763083
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
When servicewomen and men leave the armed forces, their care transfers to the statutory and third sector where the quality and provision of services can vary enormously. This edited book, encompassing a range of perspectives, from service user to professional, provides a comprehensive overview of services available. Each chapter, in turn, examines the policy underpinnings of systems and services covering the psychological health and social care of military veterans and then focuses on the needs of a discrete number of types of military veterans including early service leavers, veterans in the criminal justice system, older veterans and reservists, together with the needs of the children of veterans’ families. This is the first UK book to examine the whole spectrum of contemporary approaches to the psychological health and social care of military veterans both in the United Kingdom and overseas. The book is edited by Professor Jamie Hacker Hughes, a former head of healthcare psychology within the UK Ministry of Defence and all contributors are experts in policy, service provision and academic research in this area. It will be of special interest to those designing and planning, commissioning, managing and delivering mental health and social care to military veterans and their families