More handpicked essays just for you.
Papers on mental health and veterans
Research paper on the mental health of veterans
Papers on mental health and veterans
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The United States of America possess a major complication, which is the high amount of suicides in the military. Most people are unaware of the risks from being in the military until it is too late to assist them. Serving in the military can cause PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), which then leads to complications with family situations, financial issues, and depression. Without proper therapy, many soldiers are at high risk of committing suicide. According to researchers, suicide is the second leading cause of death in the U.S. military, with rates ranging between 9 to 15 deaths per 100,000 service members (Bryan, et al. 1). Typically, Caucasian male service members are more at risk of suicides than any females (****). This affects multiple civilians that have family or friends who are serving in the military. Furthermore, this matter is important because not only are they civilians who commit suicides, but they are the leaders who stepped up to protect and defend our country. America needs to aid its troops for the sake of the nation’s defense. In order to reduce the amount of suicides during and after being deployed from the military, the military must require soldiers to know of ways to help themselves and others in need of assistance. A few ways to aid soldiers are suicide hotlines, counseling …show more content…
for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and an enforced service for soldiers that inspects for trauma after they are released from the military. In the meantime, PTSD is a growing cause throughout our country and The Department of Defense needs attack this cause before this disorder causes horrible outcomes.
Most soldiers with PTSD experience family issues, depression, and financial problems. This disorder leads to many other causes as well and eventually directs someone’s actions to suicide. I agree with ** who argue, Early intervention could be a key mechanism for reducing PTSD-related personal and public health cost (Wangelin and Tuerk 1). I believe if PTSD is treated early on, from then on, the risk of suicide and the amount of money that it takes to help this disorder will have a surprising
decrease. To fully understand military suicides, there is a need to understand why the soldiers are at high risk of suicide. While soldiers are deployed into the army, they go through many stressful situations. For instance, some soldiers must neutralize a terrorist in order to protect themselves. The need to remove a terrorist life can cause severe symptoms to our soldiers. Another way to explain the tension troops live through is the constant fighting. I believe with bombs being thrown, buildings being blown to bits, and the nonstop firing of weapons can generate some form of mental pressure. If this discomfort continues without being treated, our soldiers will have lingering pain throughput their lives. Furthermore, our nation looks inadequate when our soldiers go off to fight a war and come back in an improper state. It is unacceptable to allow our soldiers to be left untreated after they have fought to protect us. These men fly out into foreign territories and fight for our freedom and our protection. Our troops need to be able to perform their duties while they are out of the country and while they are at their home land. Given these points, The Department of Defense should take into consideration these problems that are stated and act upon them. As a result of treating soldiers for PTSD, the probability of suicides will dramatically decrease.
PBS’ Frontline film “The Wounded Platoon” reviews the effects the Iraq war has had on soldiers as they return home and transition back into civilian life, focusing particularly on the rise in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among American military members from Fort Carson Army base (Edge, 2010). Incidents of PTSD have risen dramatically in the military since the beginning of the Iraq war and military mental health policies and treatment procedures have adapted to manage this increase (Edge, 2010). In “The Wounded Platoon,” many military personnel discuss how PTSD, and other mental health struggles, have been inadequately treated (if at all) by military mental health services. Reasons and Perdue’s definition of a social problem allows us to see inadequate treatment of PTSD among returning United States military members as a social problem because it is a condition affecting a significant number of people in undesirable ways that can be remedied through collective action (Reasons & Perdue, 1981).
PTSD has been intensely studied to benefit those who have been diagnosed, to get better treatments. There have been many successful cases, where the individual has conquered it. Marcus Luttrell’s symptoms have dramatically gotten better because he is a strong individual with a healthy family to support him. However, there are many people that have been dealing with this burden for years and may never get better. These men and women, who cannot find relief from PTSD, turn to self-harming; military suicides have been on the rise in the recent years and are continuing to increase. This cannot be ignored. The Veteran Administration needs to step up the treatment and recovery programs before this number begins to get out of control.
Individuals demonstrate PTSD with symptoms, such as: flashbacks, severe paranoia, insomnia, social isolation, self destructive behavior, emotional detachment, fear, severe anxiety, and etc. According to statistics, individuals with severe PTSD are at high risk for committing suicide. Veterans are more prone to this disorder due to the fact that they are emotionally unstable and have difficulties re-adjusting to a normal life once they come back from combat.
Military Sexual Trauma, also known as MST. What is it and why is it important? MST refers to psychological trauma resulting from a sexual assault or repeated, threatening harassment experienced during military service (pg. 3). Now, let us take a moment and think about the relevance of this subject? When we think of our women in combat, what do we see? We see strong and courteous females. But have we ever thought about what could be lurking underneath all that armor?
Suicide of Vietnam Veterans The deaths that were experienced in Vietnam due to Agent Orange and other jungle diseases have become well known by the general public. However, it is suicide that has resulted in the deaths of over 150,000 Vietnam soldiers during and after the war. An enormous amount of suicides resulted from what most people call “protecting our country”.
Suicides among U.S military members, both active and reserve, have become increasingly common as shown in Figure 3. Beginning after the...
The transition to civilian life has left many young veterans desperate as suicide rates among veterans are much higher than that of the civilian population. In fact according to (Basu, 2013), “the annual suicide rate among veterans is about 30 for every 100,000 of the population, compared with the civilian rate of 14 per 100,000. The analysis of records from 48 states found that the suicide rate for veterans increased an average of 2.6% a year from 2005 to 2011 -- more than double the rate of increase for civilian suicide.” As these brave men and women have given so much to protect this country it is important to look at why suicide rates among veterans are so high and propose a possible solution to this horrible problem.
A survey of OEF/OIF Veterans identified major rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, alcohol-related problems, social and family problems, and suicidal behavior. However the most alarming statistic is not about deployment rates or rates of diagnoses, the most alarming fact is that fewer than 10% of those diagnosed with PTSD or depression have received the recommended the mental health treatment upon re-integration into society. The dropout rate at the Veterans Association (VA) PTSD clinics is distressingly high as well when looking into VA records it was found that 68% of OEF/OIF Veterans dropped out of their prescribed counseling and programs prior to completion (Garcia et al., 2014). Because most of these men were deployed mul...
Our soldiers not only risked life and limb for our country while serving in the Vietnam War, but they continue to suffer immensely. Americans as well as Vietnamese troops and civilians suffered great losses when it comes to casualties. Witnessing first-hand the pain and death of strangers and allies, isn’t something one is likely to forget. Post-Traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been one of the many repercussions of witnessing these gruesome events (Mental Health America). Veterans, their families, and the government have come together in combat in attempts to address the detrimental effects of PTSD.
I am a Senator from the state of California. I currently serve on the Armed Services and National Services Committee.
“In 2014, an average of 20 veterans died from suicide each day” (Thompson 1). Mental health care for veterans has been a long debated topic. For years people have debated whether or not veterans need more assistance, privatized health care, or a complete reform of the current veterans affairs programs. It should come as no surprise that with roughly 20 veterans committing suicide each day, this program needs help. Without help the mental health status of United States veterans will only continue to deteriorate, suicides will increase, and more people will go untreated.
Suicide, it's not pretty. For those of you who don't know what it is, it's the
Suicide is a preventable, yet a very serious public health problem. In 2009, more deaths resulted from suicide than from car accidents in the United States. Citation here! In the past, suicide prevention has been more geared towards youths and adolescents. However, recent research has shown an increase in suicide of middle-aged adults and this increase places suicide at the fourth leading cause of death among this age group. Citation here Little is known about midlife suicides, so with that in mind, direct practice workers need an understanding in how to address the needs and concerns of the middle-age group, so that suicide can be prevented.
Often times when I heard the word "suicidal" I was curiously caused the person to do it. Growing up, I heard that people decided to commit suicide was because they "wanted attention, they wanted the easy way out, they were weak, they couldn't handle life, etc." Personally, I have significant people in my life that have felt like they wanted to commit suicide. So, this topic honestly is a difficult, yet, emotional one to discuss.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, suicide is the action of killing oneself intentionally. Causes of suicide can be out of despair. This can be a consequence of several stress factors such as financial difficulties, personal troubles...etc. Work suicide can be caused by the recession; this destroys a very large number of jobs, especially in the telecoms companies because they have a technological revolution. It can also be caused by bad working conditions and frequent unannounced changes in the work environment. Companies need to improve their productivity, which means that employees have to work harder and longer, this can also lead to being “stressed out”.