Military Mental Health Care

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.

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.

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.

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

This authoritative and comprehensive title is designed to enhance best clinical practices for all healthcare providers who care for military service personnel and veterans. The book is organized into four sections. The first section covers foundational information on the culture and context of health care for members of the US military and veteran population. The second section focuses on systems of care for mental health needs of military and veteran populations. The third section characterizes best practices as well as ethical issues in clinical care for mental health needs of members of the military and veterans. Guidance in relation to a wide range of clinical topics is provided, such as mood disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, combat and operational stress, military sexual assault, psychosis, and sleep disorders. The last section is intended to assist readers in reinforcing their learning through a set of clinical cases with accompanying questions for deeper consideration. An invaluable resource for all clinicians, allied health personnel, and administrators concerned with the mental health needs of service members and veterans, Military and Veteran Mental Health: A Comprehensive Guide is a gold-standard addition to the literature on military healthcare.

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.

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.