Training Teleconference - March 30, 2006
Stigma in the Military: Strategies for Reducing Stigma Among Veterans and Active Duty Personnel
To access an archived recording of the training teleconference and presentation materials please contact the ADS Center at promoteacceptance@samhsa.hhs.gov or 1-800-540-0320.
Stigma is a real problem. It’s a societal issue, but it is much more pronounced in the military." — Col. Thomas Burke, Director of Mental Health Policy, U.S. Department of Defense, Stars and Stripes, July 22, 2005
Like their civilian counterparts, many active-duty and veteran United States military personnel are faced with the prospect of having a mental illness. However, unlike ordinary citizens, the situations under which these individuals work and live impact profoundly upon their ability to maintain mental health. Soldiers training for and participating in combat experience high levels of stress that heighten anxiety and increase the chances for depression. Combat trauma, whether experienced in the form of bodily injury or fatigue from a constant exposure to threat, increases the likelihood of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the possibility for poor performance or inappropriate conduct.
The impact of military reality on individual mental health is complicated further by the pronounced stigma associated with mental illness within military communities. Service members frequently cite fear of personal embarrassment, fear of disappointing comrades, fear of losing the opportunity for career advancement, and fear of dishonorable discharge as motivations to hide the symptoms of mental illness from colleagues, friends and family. This silence and the attitudes and perceptions perpetuating it pose a significant challenge to those charged with making sure that the United States' fighting force is improving itself and taking care of its own members.
In response to this challenge, advocates from both within and outside the U.S. military and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs are working to counter stigma and reverse the fear that causes soldiers and veterans to associate mental illness with personal and professional failure. Some programs, like the U.S. Air Force's suicide prevention initiative, provide a comprehensive approach to mental health education, training, and illness prevention that is made visible and acceptable inside military communities. Other programs seek to explore less stigmatizing methods of identifying illnesses and delivering mental health services by taking advantage of communication tools such as the Internet. Still other programs seek to promote the value of talking about illness by encouraging peer recognition and support for recovery from mental health problems.
This training will:
- Provide information on the anti-stigma component of the U.S. Air Force’s suicide prevention program.
- Discuss stigma reduction efforts within the Veteran’s Administration
- Discuss the value of increasing peer support program efforts
Lt. Col. Rick L. Campise, Ph.D., ABPP, BSC, US Air Force
Lt. Col. Campise currently serves as Chief, Air Force Deployment Behavioral Health and Chief, Air Force Substance Abuse Prevention. He is revising the Air Force’s mental health deployment teams, restructuring its combat stress management program, and enhancing its treatment of deployment issues throughout the deployment cycle. He also chairs the Air Force Deployment Behavioral Health Working Group which oversees 19 deployment subcommittees. He served as the Chief, Air Force Suicide Prevention Program (AFSPP) from 2001-2005. Lt. Col. Campise was selected as a co-winner of the 2004 American Association of Suicidologists Presidential Citation for Outstanding Contributions in Suicide Prevention, was an Air Force finalist for the 1999 Joint Chiefs of Staff Award for Excellence in Military Medicine, and received the 1997 American Psychological Association Division 19 Mid-Career Military Psychologist of the Year Award.
Maj. Steven E. Pflanz, US Air Force, MC, FS
Maj. Pflanz is the Senior Psychiatry Policy Analyst for the Air Force Medical Operations Agency. He is a board certified psychiatrist who served as the psychiatric consultant to the Wyoming Suicide Prevention Task Force from 2001-2003 and a NASA consultant during 2003 astronaut selection cycle. Dr. Pflanz is Chief of the Air Force Suicide Prevention Program, Vice President of the Academy of Organizational and Occupational Psychiatry, Chairman of the American Psychiatric Association's Committee on Psychiatry and the Workplace, and a member of the Suicide Prevention Action Network USA's national board of directors.
Susan McCutcheon, RN, Ed.D.
Dr. McCutcheon is the Program Manager for Special Projects in the Office of Mental Health Services at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) in Washington, D.C. She began her career with the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) in 1982 and has held various administrative and clinical positions during that time. Most of her VHA career has been in the field of mental health with a major emphasis on the people with serious mental illnesses. She has received graduate degrees in Psychiatric / Mental Health Nursing, Industrial / Organizational Psychology and Educational Administration. In 2001, she was selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow. Her awards include the Cleveland Federal Executive Employee Recognition Award (1997) by the Cleveland Federal Executive Board and the Mental Health Professional of the Year by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) - Metro Cleveland (1998).
Moe Armstrong, M.B.A., M.A.
Mr. Armstrong is Director of Consumer and Family Affairs at the Vinfen Corporation, a mental health services provider in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In addition to being a veteran and self-identified consumer of mental health services, he has served as past Chair of the Veterans' Subcommittee for the NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) National Board. He also co-founded (with his wife, Naomi) the Peer Educators Project, a program that relies on people with mental illnesses and their families to teach others how to live with mental illnesses. In addition to the Peer Educators Project, Mr. Armstrong has used his experience as a veteran and his background in peer support to reach out to other veterans through the Vet to Vet initiative. Vet to Vet is a support program principally focused on the unique experiences of veterans and is designed to help them learn how to live with the effects of mental illnesses from other vets who have 'walked in their shoes.'