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    A major concern for the U.S. military, its personnel, and their family members, is mental health among the ranks. Suicide rates among military veterans and active duty military personnel steadily increased post 9/11. Trends show service members are unlikely to seek support for mental health concerns primarily due to the stigma in the military and the broader culture around the issue. We sought to understand the challenges military personnel and their spouses face post-deployment when talking about, suggesting, and seeking mental health support. We interviewed 50 U.S. military service members and their spouses (N = 100). Our thematic analysis identified six dilemmas with three forms (i.e., My, Your, & Our). Findings suggest service members and their families are underserved during the reintegration period and underscore the need for intervention efforts that improve their mental, emotional, and relational well-being.
    Service member
    Active duty
    Thematic Analysis
    Military deployment
    LAY SUMMARY Optimal health is critical for military personnel’s performance and readiness. To date, military research on mental and behavioural health has primarily focused on men in the U.S. Army. Indicators of physical health (e.g., blood pressure) and how they relate to mental and behavioural health are also understudied in military populations. To explore the impact of occupational stress and to simultaneously assess different types of health in a more diverse military population, this study evaluated mental, behavioural, and physical health factors in a large group of U.S. Navy and Marine Corps service members that included men and women from various occupational specialties. Military job stress (e.g., time of service, number of deployments) was related to mental, behavioural, and physical health. A more well-rounded approach to health status assessment in large, diverse military populations may support the development of targeted disease prevention strategies.
    Active duty
    Service member
    Military psychiatry
    Military medicine
    Physical health
    Citations (2)
    Individuals employed in first responder professions are at risk for the development of psychiatric symptoms. Two of these professions, firefighting and military service, demonstrate a strong overlap of employees. Prior research has demonstrated increased prevalence rates of psychiatric symptoms, including suicide-related behaviors among firefighters. Subpopulations within this occupation provide an opportunity to inform tailored prevention and intervention tactics. One such subpopulation are firefighters with military service history (concurrent and prior). The current study looks to investigate psychiatric symptom differences between firefighters with and without military service history. We hypothesized an additive effect of military service, such that firefighters with a history of military service will be at increased risk for various psychiatric symptoms compared to their civilian-only counterparts. In addition, potential theoretically-based explanatory constructs will be used to investigate mechanisms of significant relationships between military service and psychiatric outcomes. Results did not support an additive effect of military service history within the firefighting profession, as firefighters with military service history were not more likely to endorse various psychiatric symptoms. Military service history was found to be significantly related to career NSSI, such that firefighters with a history of military service were 2.52 times more likely to report a career history of NSSI. Emotion dysregulation did not explain this relationship. Further investigation into the type of military service history suggests firefighters who are also reservists in the armed forces are at particular risk for suicide-related behaviors. Compared to civilian-only firefighters, firefighters with a history of active duty service and national guard service also demonstrated increased risk for suicide-related behaviors. The present study’s results indicate the type of military service, rather than military service in general, is particularly relevant for suicide-related behaviors within a firefighter population. Future directions for further investigation into this unique population are discussed.%%%%A Thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science.%%%%Fall Semester 2017.%%%%October 23, 2017.%%%%Firefighters, Military, Psychiatric Symptoms, Risk, Suicide%%%%Thomas E. Joiner, Professor Directing Thesis; Colleen Ganley, Committee Member; Joseph Franklin, Committee Member.
    Active duty
    Service member
    Military History
    Citations (0)
    The best collateral source may be another service member with whom the patient has served in addition to a family member. Evaluate explicitly post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), chronic pain, sleep disorders, balance, and hearing loss, as these are common in military personnel with concussion, especially blast-related injuries. Maintain confidentiality. If the patient has been using drugs and/or alcohol, it may be wise to refer them for rehabilitation discretely, since active duty military personnel do not have the same privacy protections that civilians have, and this can jeopardize their future careers. Return-to-duty decision-making is best done in collaboration with military physicians and occupational therapists. Refer to community resources specifically dedicated to wounded warriors.
    Active duty
    Service member
    Collateral damage
    Abstract : Enlisted military personnel who leave the active forces form a valuable pool of trained personnel from which come entrants to the Selected Reserves and the Individual Ready Reserves. In addition, members of this pool may later return to active duty, where they may function as alternatives to nonprior service accessions or to reenlistments. To better understand this source of trained manpower, the authors followed the 1974 cohort of active duty enlistees over time, and investigated the flows among three components of the U.S. armed forces--active duty, Selected Reserves (SR), and Individual Ready Reserves (IRR)--and the flows between the civilian and military sectors. The findings indicate there is a large untapped pool of potential prior service accessions from which to attract personnel into the active forces, and little evidence that drawing from this pool will divert trained personnel from the Selected Reserves. Several tables (data) are included.
    Active duty
    Service member
    Citations (0)
    Military orthopaedic surgeons are faced with hardship and decreased morale. Surgeons have frequent deployments and practice inefficiencies resulting in poor retention rates. The purpose of this analysis is to report demographics and factors effecting military retention. A survey was sent to all members of the Society of Military Orthopedic Surgeons. The survey obtained demographic information, as well as factors affecting retention and termination of service. Data was compared between subset groups within the total respondent population. Of active-duty personnel, 38.5% plan on staying in the military until retirement. Most surgeons entered into the military due to a desire to serve their country, while most people leave service due to higher pay as a civilian. A minority of military orthopaedic surgeons achieve military retirement; however, increased pay, increased control over practice, and decreased frequency of deployments are factors that could improve retention rates. (Journal of Surgical Orthopaedic Advances 30(2):116-119, 2021).
    Active duty
    Demographics
    Military medicine
    Service member
    Citations (3)
    In current military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, US National Guard (NG) troops are serving longer deployments than ever before. Little is known, however, about how such deployments affect this population of individuals, relative to active component (AC) troops. This study investigated the extent of combat exposure, severity of post-deployment psychological symptoms, and general interpersonal functioning, as well as the interrelationships of these variables, in 50 NG soldiers who served a 12-month deployment in Iraq from 2005 to 2006. The results indicate that combat exposure and post-deployment post-traumatic stress symptoms in this sample are greater than those in NG veterans of past military operations, and similar to those of full-time soldiers in current operations. Furthermore, the patterns of interrelationships between combat exposure, psychological symptoms, and interpersonal variables were similar to those detected in prior research on AC troops. These results suggest that NG veterans of current military operations may require similar services as active duty veterans. Given that NG troops are less integrated into the military structure, specific outreach efforts may be needed to help NG veterans to receive such services.
    Active duty
    National guard
    Service member
    Outreach
    Guard (computer science)
    Marital status
    Combat stress reaction
    Military psychology
    Military deployment
    Citations (87)
    Active duty enlisted military personnel are more likely to misuse alcohol than civilians – a pattern which persists even after the transition to civilian life. We used in-depth, substance use history interviews to elicit drinking trajectories from 54 re-integrating Army National Guard, Air Force Reserve and Army Reserve personnel from Arkansas with a history of problematic substance use. A hybrid inductive-deductive analytic approach revealed institutional norms, shared beliefs about drinking, and social values and expectations among military peers present in the context of military service that Veterans described as having shaped their drinking trajectories. Framing Veterans’ narratives vis-à-vis practice theory revealed the complex processes by which excessive drinking was embodied as routine practice during military service and subsequently reproduced in a very different post-deployment context, often with deleterious results. Elucidating these implicit processes suggested pro-active strategies for preventing problematic drinking by active duty personnel and improving the re-integration experiences of Veterans.
    Active duty
    National guard
    Service member
    Framing (construction)
    Citations (2)
    Post-traumatic distress after military combat is a major cost of war. One under-investigated factor potentially associated with PTSD symptoms is specific beliefs about one's military service. This study examined post-deployment self-reports from 272 active-duty U.S. Army soldiers, to investigate potential associations between military-related PTSD symptom severity and three beliefs about the military: the importance and value ascribed to one's own work in the Army, to current military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to military service in general. Higher scores on these three beliefs were negatively correlated with military-related PTSD symptom severity. However, in a combined regression model that controlled for recent combat exposure, only the belief about current military operations had a significant, unique association with PTSD symptom severity. That is, more positive beliefs about the value of operations in Iraq or Afghanistan were associated with lower PTSD symptoms.
    Active duty
    Service member
    Military medicine
    Military psychology
    Combat stress reaction
    Citations (2)