Mental Health In The Military Essay

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Active duty military provides protection, countless hours, and unknown personal sacrifices for the country. Families have moved across the world, children switch schools, family pets get left behind, and parents leave for long and repeated deployments. Military life is not easy and it shows in current military divorce rates. Any marriage runs into problems, but long separations and mental duress which are relatively standard issues in active military life. The problem is that soldiers and their families are resistant to seek out help due to current military protocol for dealing with mental health disorders. It is this attitude that is leading to increased suicide and homicide rates in both active duty and our veterans. There needs to be a more effective way to treat service members with mental health issues and marital problems. By implementing stronger mental health programs that focus on realistic goals for military families to achieve, there can be a more mentally prepared military. One of the biggest issues to a military lifestyle is dealing with deployments and TDY's (temporary duties). Deployments and TDY's can vary in location and length but are typically 6 to 18 months in length for the …show more content…

After a deployment, military members are briefed on signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), what to do if experiencing the symptoms, and are then asked if they have any questions or concerns. A majority (if not all) will state that their mental health status is fine, merely to cutback on the lengthy debriefing time and get back to their families. PTSD is all too common in members that have been deployed and they are given few options that will truly help. They know that if they mention something, they can immediately be reported and it can negatively effect their

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