Some challenges military members and their families may face include reconnecting with family and re-establishing a role in the family. Families may have created new routines during the service member’s deployments or absences. During the transition, both the family members and the service member may have difficulty adjusting to this change (The Department of Veteran Affairs). As previously mentioned, entering the workforce or returning to a job can also be a challenge. Adjusting to a different pace of life can also be a challenge, as in the military, “personnel do not leave until the mission is complete” (The Department of Veteran Affairs). This type of mission approach may not translate into the workplace or personal life. I noticed in …show more content…
Recently, when talking with an active duty member, who will be discharging from the military in two months, he explained that he feels like he was just thrown a ton of resources with information during his TAP. The service member explained that he did not retain any of the information, as it was very overwhelming for him. When working with a soon to be veteran, it is important to educate the service member on what to expect, but also assess what the needs are. From there, social workers should provide appropriate resources and …show more content…
Some services the veteran was receiving included physical therapy, pain medicine management, as well as follow up orthopedic doctor’s appointments post-surgery. After viewing the video, what I thought would be beneficial for the couple would be care giver support, mental health services, as well as in home services to assist the service member’s wife with daily things such as medicine management, bathing, clothing, etc. Some of the service member’s behavior was worrisome to me, including his irritability, obsession with weapons, hypervigilance, inability to sleep, and him wanting to stay in the military after his combat injury. I feel that the service member could benefit from some individual counseling, as well as a PTSD screening. The wife could also benefit from some services, such as individual counseling or a support group for caregivers, as she appeared stressed and
Another study wanted to look at veterans who served in Iraq, their mental health problems, and their treatment. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs health care system, 25% of returning veterans from Iraq reported problems such as posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression. Although many reported these issues, very little actually sought out help. The stigma of having something wrong with them and needing help was the number one reason veterans did not get treatment. They feared that they would be labeled as crazy. The veterans also cited fear of having negative consequences at work if others knew that they were in treatment. This studied showed that although many veterans have mental health problems due to their military service, they are not actively seeking out the help they need (Stecker, Fortney, Hamilton, & Ajzen, 2007).
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).
Deployment is a word that all military spouses and military families dread to hear. When my husband came home to our barely moved in house with news of his deployment to Afghanistan, I was devastated. Though we received terrible news, we also felt incredible joy that same week. I was pregnant with our first child. We were overjoyed by this news but it also meant that my husband would be away the first eight months of our son’s life.
While soldiers are away from home, many things might change that they aren’t there for, for example, family problems and disasters. In addition, veterans might come home to a whole different world than when they left, and this already makes their lives more challenging to go with these changes. In addition, soldiers might also come back with physical injuries, like a lost limb, or loss of hearing. As a result, this makes everyday tasks much harder than they actually are. Veterans also might be mentally scarred from war. For example, a mental disorder called post traumatic stress disorder, makes life for the veteran and family much
Ever since the United States had gained its independence from Britain in 1776, we have prided ourselves upon the courageous military personnel that have devoted their lives to guaranteeing freedom and protection to citizens of this country. However, what happens when our sole protectors and guardians experience severe mental anguish and are the ones that need help to simply go about their daily lives? Little by little there has been one woman who has provided that comfort and assistance to the military men and women, and who has realized the severity of the effects that combat has on the mental states of these men and women and their loved ones. Barbara Van Dahlen has become a prominent and notable leader through her consistent effort of aiding those who fought or are fighting in wars and supporting the families and communities impacted by the military troops.
Veteran homelessness must be attacked at multiple levels in order to ensure that it does not turn into a revolving door. So beyond simply providing temporary housing support we will also have to improve our veteran’s lives for the long-term. This entails treatment for their PTSD by providing them with access to health and wellness clinics, recovery resources, peer support groups, and individual counseling. (Note: Key information from HYPERLINK "http://www.voail.org" http://www.voail.org).
Research from Psychiatric Effects of Military Deployment on Children and Families indicates; “Deployments for military members in the United States have increased in both frequency and length over the past 10 years. As a result of these deployments, many children from military families have experienced absences of one or both parents. More than two million United States children have been affected directly by a parent’s deployment. The evidence is clear that deployments are stressful on families and that children can be affected by these
Social workers in all branches of the military are helping families and military personnel prepare for, and cope with, the hardships of war. They do so through a range of preventive and clinical services provided by the Veteran Administration with many different types of programs, including family-support and mental-health counseling. The mission statement of the VA Social Workers is to eliminate significant barriers to clients in need and offer interventions for veterans and families. It is accomplished by developing and maintaining integrated, in-depth programs in patient care, research, and education.
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...
The military since the Colonial Era has been an impetus for social reform in the United States. The Revolutionary War afforded Black Americans an opportunity to escape from the toils of slavery and fight for freedom. Some Black Americans even earned their freedom by fighting for the Colonists, but still the freedom they fought for wasn’t their own. However, the military was responsible for the freedom of many slaves and some of these freed slaves became legendary soldiers like Salem Poor. His performance in battle gave credibility for future arguments about blacks being allowed to serve.
Veterans have struggles with their civilian life after separating from the U.S Armed Forces. Returning to the civilian life seem to be a big challenge for veterans who have no prior job’s skills for civilian life because they had been influenced from military’s training, have physical and psychological damage.
Let’s take military families for example when a family member joins a military to serve his/her country, their families stress over safety. Even during peaceful times military families face separation, military children’s change states/countries so often that they don’t have a personal life, they don’t stay in one place to have a lasting friendship, they change schools so often in some case they fall behind, And during wartime military children and families stress over their family member safety. (Nansook Park, 2011). “Pentagon estimates suggest that nearly 900,000 service members with children have been deployed to war since 2001, and approximately 234,000 children have one or both parents currently deployed to a combat zone” (Zoroya,
Veterans have manifested significant mental or behavioral health issues and in turn, health care services have been set to respond to their needs through educating community health care providers to work with veterans, service members and their families. As Zeiss & Karlin (2008) demonstrates, health care system has partnered with national organizations, health services, resources administration and other major mental projects that target the veterans to ensure effective services to mental health concerns. There are many inter-professional roles geared towards veterans due to their wide-range of mental issues including physicians, psychologists, social workers, substance abuse professionals, licensed counselors, public health workers, therapists related to marriage and family issues, nurses, chaplains, law enforcement and occupational therapists. In the course of this discussion, the way veterans mental issues has been addressed will be constricted to nursing setting to describe the scope, severity, behavioral health issues and responses among veterans.
Married veterans find it hard as well “Overall, being married while serving reduces the chances of an easy re-entry from 63% to 48% (Morin, 2011)”. Deployment to a combat zone or being in the middle of the ocean away from family and loved ones taxes a marriage. Thus, creating extra stress on their personal life from what should be a support network. This extra stress can cause relationship problems which they don’t fully resolve add onto the stress from transitioning out of the miliatry (Morin,
...y need in order to live a happy and healthy rest of their life. Just by reading this article it allows you into a whole new world of the military, something deeper than what we see from the outside world. At first when one reads this article they might find it biased and not very beneficial, but once they present the data tables you see the numbers and it blows your mind to see how many veterans are suffering from posttraumatic disorder. The presentation of the evidence and the way the argument is presented is in a well-organized manner for any reader to follow along. “ Mental Health in Deployed and Non-deployed Veteran Men and Women in Comparison With their Civilian Counterparts,” is a reliable source due to the academic presentation which includes data, personal interviews, qualified sources and a balanced argument that have points that support their argument.