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Research paper on veteran's mental health
Research paper on the mental health of veterans
Veterans post traumatic stress syndrome and mental illness
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Literature Review Pertaining to veterans, depression is one of the leading causes for disability. It is also one of the most costly chronic conditions when it comes to health care expenditures and lost productivity (Desai, Rosenheck, & Thomas, 2006). There are several reasons for why a veteran can be facing depression. Factors can come from war and some can be from coming back home. Depression is a serious disorder that typically goes undiagnosed and untreated. Because of this, routine screening for depression has been advised so that more occurrences for depression could be found and more people can be assisted. Pertaining to veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs (also known as the VA), requires annual depression screening for veterans who are not already receiving treatment. This will ensure that those who are in need of services will have the appropriate ones for the exact issue that they are facing. Combat veterans commonly report guilt and depression following stressful military experiences. An example of this could be from a soldier fighting a war overseas and killing several people in the process. They …show more content…
This is where different approaches come forth and one in particular is health belief. Health belief is an approach that hopes to examine and predict health behaviors. What this particular approach can do is help enhance treatment seeking for depression. This approach shows the importance of understanding patients’ beliefs about mental health disorders and mental health treatment for veterans. Health beliefs are believed to be determining factors of help seeking behavior, treatment adherence, and clinical outcomes (Edlund, Fortney, Reaves, Pyne, & Mittal, 2008). Because health belief’s main role include education, its hope is to improve the prompting of treatment, the effectiveness of treatment, and fix the barriers for treatment that are in
The reality that shapes individuals as they fight in war can lead to the resentment they have with the world and the tragedies that they had experienced in the past. Veterans are often times overwhelmed with their fears and sensations of their past that commonly disables them to transgress and live beyond the emotions and apprehensions they witness in posttraumatic experiences. This is also seen in everyday lives of people as they too experience traumatic events such as September 11th and the fall of the World Trade Center or simply by regrets of decisions that is made. Ones fears, emotions and disturbances that are embraced through the past are the only result of the unconscious reality of ones future.
They use medication and alcohol for sleeping because they obsess that enemies are coming, they need more consciousness to fight back.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), originally associated with combat, has always been around in some shape or form but it was not until 1980 that it was named Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and became an accredited diagnosis (Rothschild). The fact is PTSD is one of many names for an old problem; that war has always had a severe psychological impact on people in immediate and lasting ways. PTSD has a history that is as long and significant as the world’s war history - thousands of years. Although, the diagnosis has not been around for that long, different names and symptoms of PTSD always have been. Some physical symptoms include increased blood pressure, excessive heart rate, rapid breathing, muscle tension, nausea, diarrhea, problems with vision, speech, walking disorders, convulsive vomiting, cardiac palpitations, twitching or spasms, weakness and severe muscular cramps. The individual may also suffer from psychological symptoms, such as violent nightmares, flashbacks, melancholy, disturbed sleep or insomnia, loss of appetite, and anxieties when certain things remind them such as the anniversary date of the event (Peterson, 2009).
Imagine living in despair after coming back home, dismayed from a war that got no appreciation. Robert Kroger once said in his quote, “The brave men and women, who serve their country and as a result, live constantly with the war inside them, exist in a world of chaos. But the turmoil they experience isn’t who they are, the PTSD invades their minds and bodies.” Eleven percent of Vietnam Veterans still suffer with symptoms of the terrifying disorder of PTSD (Handwerk). Vietnam Veterans struggle with the physiological effects of PTSD after war, which leads to despair and many deaths.
Are veterans being taken care of medically, mentally, and financially? According to Steve Buyer, a member of the House of Representatives from Indiana's fourth district, "Because all of us believe and understand in the fabric of the common bond of why we call ourselves American is to care for the men and women who wear the uniform; and when they take off the uniform, we care for them when they are veterans." After men or women finish their time serving our country and take off their uniform, they still hold the title of Veteran. They are the brave ones who fought and served for America. The care for the veterans of America is a crucial part of giving back to those who risked their lives for our country.
“Factors Affecting Health Care” (50-55) Demonstrates the sacrifices and how difficult it is for veterans to receive healthcare from the Department of Veteran Affairs.
War is hell. War is misery, suffering, pain, and anguish. From the days of rocks and sticks to today’s high tech drones and aircraft carriers one thing above all others has remained the same; war is a terrifying, nightmarish endeavor. Unfortunately for those who fight for their nation, the battlefield does not remain in the far off land where the battle took place. In fact, those warriors bring back that battlefield, festering in the hearts and minds, sometimes long after their uniforms have been put in the closet to collect dust. It should come as no surprise that for a variety of reasons all stemming from combat experience, many of our nations Veterans will act in unconventional or perhaps even illegal ways, in an attempt to cope with the stress of their military service. It may be easy for some to say that these men and women, despite their service, are criminals and should be locked away like any other who breaks the law. However, if rehabilitation is truly a goal of our justice system it would not make any sense to take a group of offenders suffering from the side effects of combat experiences and throw them in prison, which is little better than combat anyway. This is why the advent of Veteran’s courts is so important. Due to their service, and the effects that PTSD and other service related conditions may have on their criminal behavior, Veteran’s courts are not only an honorable way to treat our nation’s defenders, but a way in which to protect them from the negative impact of incarceration. These courts, which are based off of drug and mental health courts, are designed to take less serious offenders, who offenses were related to their service connected conditions and keep them away from incarceration and into treatment (...
Seal, Karen H., Daniel Bertenthal, Christian R. Miner, Saunak Sen, and Charles Marmar. "Bringing the War Back Home: Mental Health Disorders Among 103 788 US Veterans Returning From Iraq and Afghanistan Seen at Department of Veterans Affairs Facilities." Archives of Internal Medicine 167.5 (2007): 476-82. Print.
Following negative feelings from close individuals in a Veteran’s life, a person taking part in war can become detached.
The first reason that veterans’ treatment needs to be changed is that, they are suffering from PTSD and not getting the care that they need. Every year there are hundreds of people that enlist to fight in the armed forces and some or severely injured or even killed, but some of those that do end up making it back are suffering from the horrors that they have seen. Because of their involvement in the armed forces, many veterans are diagnosed with PTSD and this can give them thoughts of suicide. According to
Hundreds of thousands of United States veterans are not able to leave the horrors of war on the battlefield (“Forever at War: Veterans Everyday Battles with PTSD” 1). Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the reason why these courageous military service members cannot live a normal life when they are discharged. One out of every five military service members on combat tours—about 300,000 so far—return home with symptoms of PTSD or major depression. According to the Rand Study, almost half of these cases go untreated because of the disgrace that the military and civil society attach to mental disorders (McGirk 1). The general population of the world has to admit that they have had a nightmare before. Imagine not being able to sleep one wink because every time you close your eyes you are forced to relive memories from the past that you are trying to bury deep. This is what happens to the unfortunate men and women who are struggling with PTSD. Veterans that are struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder deserve the help they need.
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...
Wounds, fire, tanks, sweat, letters, distance, cold, training, effort; all these terms are the cause of all psychological aftermath in veterans. Most of the veterans who make it back home alive, come back with their psychological health dead, as well as some make it back alive with their psychological health better than ever. The amount of psychological damages for veterans are sometimes more the expected than the real, and sometimes financial benefits play a big role in finding out which exact soldiers really suffer from these post war effects.
On November 11th America honors their veterans, but is one day to celebrate enough considering they risked their lives for our freedom. We take a day to honor these heroic men and women who put themselves aside to be dedicated to helping americans achieve the freedom they deserve. There are many little things to make them feel like they made the right choice to serve you and your country. Up until this point I haven’t really thought about how we can give back to our veterans. As I sit and think about the many ways we can give back there is way too many to count.
In order to help current and future veterans there needs to be a change within the staffing, funding, and overall urgency towards mentally ill veterans. Though many people assume that veterans are well taken care of after war, evidence of mental health disorders and large numbers of suicide suggest otherwise, therefore the VA program should be reformed. Mental illness is no stranger to veterans of the U.S military, as far back as World War II there have been reports of mental disease among veterans. The most common mental illness among veterans is P.T.S.D (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), the severity of this illness usually increase due to a traumatic brain injury. Lifeline for Vets states that