Archived Teleconference Call: Reducing Stigma for American Military Personnel
Upcoming Training Teleconference: Reducing Stigma for Women in the Military
Online Resources
Research
Models, Programs, and Technical Assistance Tools
In My Experience... by Moe Armstrong
*The contents of this informational update do not necessarily represent the views, policies, and positions of the Center for Mental Health Services, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services."
Archived Teleconference: Reducing Stigma for American Military Personnel
Nearly 1.4 million men and women make up the existing ranks of active duty military personnel, serving in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force, but research shows that America’s soldiers may not seek help when they are experiencing a mental health problem. A 2004 study of 6,000 military personnel involved in ground combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan found that of those whose responses indicated a mental health problem, only 23 to 40 percent sought psychiatric help.1 Many who did not cited fear of being stigmatized as a reason.2 In June of this year, the Department of Defense Task Force on Mental Health acknowledged that “Stigma in the military remains pervasive and often prevents service members from seeking needed care” and made dispelling stigma one of their goals.3
In December 2007, the ADS Centered offered a teleconference training to:
- Explore research on soldiers, including veterans, and mental health stigma.
- Offer first-hand accounts from people who have experienced mental health stigma in the military.
- Provide an overview of strategies that may help to promote mental health recovery and reduce stigma among members of the military.
This training is available for playback and the presentation files that accompany the training can be downloaded. For more information, please visit the ADS Center Web site.
Sources:
1-2 S.G. Boodman. (November 6, 2007.) The other wounded. The Washington Post, last accessed 11/16/07.
3 Department of Defense Task Force on Mental Health. (2007). An achievable vision: Report of the Department of Defense Task Force on Mental Health. Falls Church, VA: Defense Health Board, last referenced 11/29/07.
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Upcoming Training Teleconference: Reducing Stigma for Women in the Military
During our training teleconference on reducing stigma for American military personnel, the ADS Center received many emails and questions about the unique stigma faced by women in the military. In response to this strong interest, the ADS Center will be hosting a teleconference on this topic on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 from 2pm - 3:30pm. Please mark your calendars and check the ADS Center Web site for registration information.
The training teleconference has been re-scheduled for Wednesday, August 6, 2008 from 2pm – 3:30pm.
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Online
Resources
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America
http://www.iava.org/
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America is the nation's first and largest group dedicated to the Troops and Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the civilian supporters of those Troops and Veterans.
Issues Facing Returning Veterans
http://www.neattc.org/Vets2007NEWSLETTER.pdf
This issue of Resource Links newsletter is dedicated to understanding the complexities that returning veterans and their families face.
ONE Freedom, Inc.
http://www.onefreedom.org/
ONE Freedom provides education and training for our nation's warriors and their families regarding the challenges of military deployments and the return to home. Our programs help the individual, the family and the community by teaching the natural elements of the stress response and self-guided tools for increasing personal resiliency and strength.
The Road Home: National Conference on Returning Veterans & Their Families http://www.samhsa.gov/SAMHSA_News/VolumeXIV_3/article2.htm
Hundreds of thousands of veterans, family and community members will be, and are being, directly affected as our service men and women return home from war. Veterans’ experiences of serving in a war, and of being away from their jobs, families, and communities, will invariably cause changes in their relationships. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) sponsored a conference to provide educational and networking opportunities for providers, administrators, veterans, families, government agencies, and others, about how best to serve these returning veterans and their families. Please visit the link above for conference materials, articles, and information.
Vets4Vets
http://www.vets4vets.us/
Vets4Vets is a non-partisan veteran organization dedicated to helping Iraq and Afghanistan-era veterans feel good about themselves and heal from any negative aspects of service and war through the use of peer support.
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Research
Fontana, A., Rosenheck, R. (2004). Traumatic war stressors and psychiatric symptoms among World War II, Korean, and Vietnam War veterans. Psychology and Aging, 9(1), 27-33. [Abstract]
Gould, M. Greenberg, N. & J. Hettheron. (2007). Stigma and the military: evaluation of a PTSD psychoeducational program. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 20(4):505-15. [Abstract]
Hoge, C.W., Auchterlonie, J.L., and C.S. Milliken. (2006) Mental health problems, use of mental health services, and attrition from
military service after returning from deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 295(9):1023-32. [Abstract]
Hoge, C.W, Castro, C.A., Messer, S.C., McGurk, D., Cotting, D.I. & R.K. Koffman.
(2004) Combat duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, mental health problems, and barriers to care. The New England Journal of Medicine,
351(1):13-22. [Abstract]
Langston, V., Gould, M., & N. Greenberg. (2007) Culture: what is its effect on stress in the military? Military Medicine 172(9), 931-9359.
[Abstract]
Milliken, C.S., Auchterlonie, J.L, & C.W. Hoge. (2007) Longitudinal assessment of mental health problems among active and reserve component soldiers returning from the Iraq war. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 298(18):2141-8. [Abstract]
Sansone, R.A., Matheson, G., Gaither, G.A. & N. Logan. (2008). Concerns about career stigma by military parents of children with psychiatric illness. Military Medicine 173(2):134-7. [Abstract]
Spurgeon, D. (2004). Fear of stigma deters US soldiers from seeking help for mental health. British Medical Journal, 329(12). [Abstract]
Vedantam, S. (March 1, 2006). Veterans report mental distress: About a third returning from Iraq seek help. The Washington Post.
Westphal, R.J. (2007). Fleet leaders' attitudes about subordinates' use of mental health services. Military Medicine, 172(11), 1138-1143. [Abstract]
Zrihen, I., Ashkenazi, I., Lubin, G., & R. Magnezi. (2007). The cost of preventing stigma by hospitalizing soldiers in a general hospital instead of a psychiatric hospital. Military Medicine, 172(7), 686-689.
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Models,
Programs, and TA Tools
Recovery and the Military:
Treating Veterans and their Families
http://www.recoverymonth.gov/2006/multimedia/w.aspx?ID=470
The effects of deployment, post-traumatic stress syndrome, as well as other stressors of military life can lead to unhealthy coping behaviors and/or addiction to alcohol and drugs in veterans returning to civilian life.
This Webcast
examines treatment availability and alcohol and drug addiction treatment options available for veterans and their families. The show also addresses current trends and prevalence of substance use disorders among veterans and will shed light on current addiction treatment issues facing veterans and their families.
The program is hosted by Ivette Torres, Associate Director for Consumer Affairs, Center for Substance
Abuse Treatment (CSAT), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and a panel of experts, including:
● H. Westley Clark, M.D., J.D., M.P.H., CAS, FASAM, Director, CSAT, SAMHSA, HHS
● Patricia B. Getty, Ph.D., Supervisory Public Health Advisor, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, SAMHSA
● Dr. Richard T. Suchinsky, Associate Chief Consultant for Addictive Disorders, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
● Ezekiel Pankey, Followup Counselor, Case Manager, Maryland Center for Veterans Education and Training (MCVET).
This Webcast also contains personal stories about people in recovery and interviews from treatment providers and others in the field who help make recovery possible.
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In
My Experience… by Moe Armstrong
My name is Moe Armstrong. I was decorated with a Navy Commendation medal for saving a Marine under hostile fire. Articles about my medical service with Third Recon Battalion in Vietnam were published in Leatherneck, the magazine of the Marines. But as a medical corpsman, I had never been trained to take care of the psychiatrically wounded. My sergeant developed a mental illness and I did not know what to do. Six months later, I suffered a major psychiatric breakdown. I did not understand the full extent of what happened to me. I was separated from my unit and medically evacuated from Vietnam
My discharge from the military hospital left me alone on the streets of America. The year was 1966. No one understood mental illness. I did not understand my symptoms. I was not given any after care. In those days, a person was either in the hospital or out of the hospital. The Veterans Administration got me housing and monetary benefits to live. I struggled for many years trying to understand why I was nervous and sleepless all the time. I have continued to try to understand my mental illness.
What has been worse than my own disrupted life—from agitated sleep patterns, daily nervousness, being startled by noises, and feeling stunned with mental disorientation? The stigma and prejudice of society and even the mental health system. In some ways, stigma has taken a bigger toll on me than my psychiatric condition.
Stigma for me started while I was in the military. Mental health meant being weak-minded; strong and valiant people never broke down. I have come to believe the opposite. Mental illness is very unpredictable. Anyone at any time can develop mental illness. Our job is to care for those who have become psychiatric causalities. We also need to be aware of the nature of the condition. High states of anxiety and depression are signs that something has shifted in the brain function. These conditions do not mean that the person is weak minded or that he needs behavioral modification techniques.
Many of us with a mental illness could become productive once we are taught to live with our psychiatric condition. We need to look at services for people who are deaf and blind. These services prepare people to live with their conditions. Stigma keeps us from getting that education. Stigma keeps us from learning and talking openly about mental illness. Americans, and especially the American military, are going to have to look at the prospect of possible widespread mental illness and recovery from the current war. We can turn people’s lives around and move them to recovery; but stigma can keep us from implementing quality, recovery-oriented mental health services.
My life today might be an example. I could not and cannot go back into to combat, but there is still work that I can do to help others with mental illnesses. I can help set up ongoing educational support meetings to teach about mental illnesses and how to get sane, stable safe and sober. Each One, Reach One, Teach One is the cornerstone of this ongoing education support meeting model. With realistic levels of recovery, it is possible to recruit and train people with mental illnesses to work in the mental health system.
In a way, my life has gone back to where I started. I work in mental health with the same enthusiasm that I brought to my work as a medical corpsman with the Third Recon Battalion. Ongoing educational support meetings are a form of prevention. I do not have to dive into helping people who are in psychiatric crisis. Through learning about the psychiatric condition, we are learning prevention or symptom reduction. Realistic levels of recovery are possible. My life is helping others which, in turn, helps me.
By getting rid of stigma, I was free to develop a program based on education and support in the mental health care field. By getting rid of stigma, I can hold my head high like people who have lived with physical illnesses like cancer or diabetes. By getting rid of stigma, the military has the opportunity to keep psychiatric casualties as active duty like they are attempting to do with people who have physical disabilities. By looking at stigma and getting rid of it—great opportunities have room to grow.
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Content in the InfoUpdate is current at the date of publication. Content and technology may change after the time of publication and affect the information presented here. If you are trying to locate a specific resource or research article, please contact the ADS Center directly. |