PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) is among the major mental illnesses both in the US and globally. In the US alone, PTSD affects between 7 to 8 per cent of the populace at given stages of their lifetime (Ramirez, Erlyana and Guilliaum, 2016). However, it should be noted that the mental health problem has relatively higher prevalence rates among specific subgroups of the population than it is to others. Active duty military officers as well as military veterans are among the groups with the highest prevalence of the mental health problem (Paré, 2011). It is also factual that little is understood concerning the effective approaches to the mitigation of the problem. The complexity and importance of PTSD result in critical questions. For instance, one might wonder about the trends in the PTSD patients among the military personnel as well as veterans in the US, the effective policies used in the mitigation of the problem. In dealing with such questions, the paper will develop a system dynamics simulation approach related to the military veterans and active men affected by the mental disorder. The proposed model will include both the veterans and the military personnel within a system of systems. This model will be novel in the sense that most of the existing policies that have been adopted at the military level have been predicted and found to have side effects on veterans.
Rationale
The high prevalence of PTSD among military personal and veterans in the US raises the need for researchers to come up with the best intervention methods that would deal with problem. The fact that the US has a long history of involvement in war means that chances are high that military personnel and veterans will continue experiencing PTSD during and after the wars. As much as most of the cases of PTSD within the US do not result from military combat and action, the criticality of the military to the security of the US makes this group of individuals a priority for intervention programs. In addition, the fact that military officers and ex-men are among those with the highest risk of developing the problem emphasizes their importance in being used in this study. Despite the criticality of the issues of PTSD among the military and ex-military individuals as well as the recent advancements in the treatment and diagnosis of the illness, there is only so much understood concerning the most effective policies of prevention. It is noted in extant literature (Gates et al., 2012) that PTSD policy research in the US is not well developed even while information concerning the illness has increased within the last four decades. Therefore, the findings of this study will inform the mental healthcare sector on the best approaches to the mitigation of PTSD that could benefit the entire world.
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Hypothesis
During the actual researching process, the research will hypothesize that the most of the present methods used in the mitigation of PTSD are more effective than the proposed system dynamics simulation approach. Otherwise stated, the research researcher will hypothesize that the proposed system dynamics simulation approach will be more effective in dealing with PTSD among populations of military and ex-military personnel compared to those reported within extant literature.
Method
Research Design and Participants
The research shall adopt a quantitative research approach in which it will entail an experimental design on 50 active military personnel and an equal number of ex-military individuals recruited using help from Department of Veterans Affairs and military hospitals in the US. The respondents to be used in the study shall be recruited based on informed consent where the researcher will send them consent letters detailing the objective of the study. Willing respondents shall be required to return signed consent letters to the researchers within two weeks of the study. Afterwards, the researcher shall use random sampling techniques to choose the respondents to be used in the study as a way of attaining the suggested number of respondents. The randomized sampling method will be considered useful for this study since it provides an equal chance of the respondents to be used in the study (Csikszentmihalyi and Larson, 2007). After the sampling shall have been completed, the researcher will notify the respondents that shall have been selected on the dates of the study.
Measures
The proposed model shall control for two major sections of the recruited respondents, military and post-military. The people in each of the groups shall be assessed based on whether they have histories of PTSD or not. In addition, three scenario of combat exposure will be controlled against non-exposure to determine the possible effect of exposure to combat on the development of PTSD.
Procedure
Concerning the military category of the respondents, they shall be divided into three different categories, ill-diagnosed, ill-undiagnosed, and healthy. The rationale for this procedure is the fact that while most of the people recruited to the military could be healthy, there are chances that some of them could have a history of the disorder since the military might be tempted to lower the criteria for such recruitment. While some people might want to argue that such a groups of recruits could be significantly lower, it should be noted that this group of people might appear as a section of those requiring services for trauma and related problems at the Veterans Affairs Department even while their problem is not related to their deployment into the military. In addition, the healthy military officers will move to the category of ill and undiagnosed in the event that they develop PTSD from trauma, which means that may not show any PTSD symptoms. The individuals will also move from ill and undiagnosed to ill and diagnosed when they show PTSD symptoms and get appropriate diagnosis. It is further considered that the ill-diagnosed could be separated or be discharged from duty causing them to move to the post-military or be treated successfully and migrate to the healthy group.
Concerning the post military, it shall be considered that active servicemen may become veterans through three different channels, healthy separation, separation with mysterious illnesses, and separation following determined illnesses. The group shall also be divided into the three groups used in those in active service. However, under this subgroup, it shall be considered that the ill and undiagnosed subgroup might move to the ill and diagnosed one following diagnosis with the disorder while successful treatment of the individuals could see them move to the healthy group.
Analysis
The researcher shall conduct different tests that shall be used with the system dynamics modeling that may include equation robustness during extreme conditions, unit consistency, and behavior validity. These tests will be useful in the development of confidence in the effectiveness of the model. In addition, during the development of equations, the researcher will first test them in comparison to different value inputs as a way of ensuring the presentation of the logic depicted in the data. The process shall then be followed by a calibration of the model to the data using he partial model calibration approach.
Definition of the Dependent, Independent Variable and the Covariates
The dependent variable in this study shall be the development of PTSD while the involvement in the military at one stage of the lives of the respondents shall the independent variable. Specifically, the paper research shall experiment a correlation between military service and the development of PTSD. Lastly, the covariates in the study shall be other factors that could result in the development of PTSD such as a history of the disorder from the family backgrounds, trauma, and other issues that are not necessarily related to combat.
Assumptions
Threats to Internal Validity
The developed model entails the use of different details related to the military personnel and quite complex. Therefore, the model could fail to deliver valid data if the researcher will fail to test it carefully and validate it for use during the modeling project. The researcher, therefore, should be careful with the procedures to ensure that the data developed is valid.
Definition of Type I and II Errors
The researcher shall hypothesize that the proposed system dynamics simulation approach will be more effective in dealing with PTSD among populations of military and ex-military personnel compared to those reported within extant literature. Therefore, the type I error will be that the proposed system dynamics simulation approach is not better than approaches within extant literature. On the contrary, the type II error will be that the approaches in extant literature are better than the propose model in dealing with PTSD.
Areas of Future Research
Future research should focus on the use of covariates as the dependent and independent variables to determine the validity of the proposed model.
References
Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Larson, R. (2007). Validity and reliability of the Experience-Sampling Method. The Journal of nervous and mental disease , 175 (9), 526-536.
Gates, M. A., Holowka, D. W., Vasterling, J. J., Keane, T. M., Marx, B. P., & Rosen, R. C. (2012). Posttraumatic stress disorder in veterans and military personnel: Epidemiology, screening, and case recognition. Psychological Services. 9 (4). , 361–382.
Paré, J. R. (2011). Post-traumatic stress disorder and the mental health of military personnel and veterans . Library of Parliament.
Ramirez, J., Erlyana, E., & Guilliaum, M. (2016). A review of art therapy among military service members and veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. Journal of Military and Veterans Health , 24 (2), 40.
