Most people associate Health Services in the military with taking care of wounded soldiers coming from battlefields, or even operating in very hostile, life-threatening conditions. Very few people think about what happens after the treatment of the physical injuries of the soldiers, the mental aspect of the treatment. During my time in the army, I was privileged to serve in the Mental Health Department of Health Services, and it sure was an eye-opener as to the struggles that military personnel go through in their private lives away from the guns and bombs of the battlefield.
Once military personnel return home from active duty, they are treated for any physical injuries they may have, with some requiring several visits to the hospital depending on the type of injury. The personnel are then scheduled for several sessions with a psychiatrist to determine their mental state and advise whether they require additional help to cope with the issues they are facing. While at the center, I noticed that former military personnel would rarely admit to the counselor or psychiatrist that they were having mental problems. However, when put in group sessions where they could share their experiences with fellow soldiers, they would open up about their mental troubles and what they did to cope. This made it easier for us in the mental health department to prescribe medication to help them relax and cope and also come up with programs to help them get over the trauma that they exhibited. Many of them were diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from the horrific experiences they went through or witnessed while on the battlefield. Records by Colpe, Naifeh, & Aliaga et al. (2015) show that in 2012, suicide rates in the army reached an all-time high at 27.9/100,000 person-years indicating the mental health problem in the forces.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
As a witness of the effectiveness of group therapy for PTSD victims, I understood why social experts and researchers advocate for group sessions to be included in the treatment plans for mental health patients. Studies show that short-term dynamic group psychotherapy for patients with depressive symptoms, such as those with PTSD, was effective in reducing and eliminating the depressive symptoms and also improve the quality of life of the patient ( Bros, Notó & Bulbena, 2017).
With this knowledge, I have decided to regularly incorporate such group psychotherapy sessions for all patients suffering from similar conditions be it in the army or the general population. I am doing it already with new personnel coming in for mental health sessions by scheduling one group session for every three individual sessions held at the hospital, and I hope that with time, it becomes standard practice. The mental health of active and former Servicemen is of importance to the nation, and any technique that helps maintain a healthy state of mind should be encouraged.
References
Bros, I., Notó, P., & Bulbena, A. (2017). Effectiveness of Short-Term Dynamic Group Psychotherapy in Primary Care for Patients with Depressive Symptoms. Clinical psychology & psychotherapy , 24 (4), 826–834 . Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.2029
Colpe, L. J., Naifeh, J. A., Aliaga, P. A., Sampson, N. A., Heeringa, S. G., et al., (2015). Mental Health Treatment Among Soldiers with Current Mental Disorders in the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Service Members (Army STARRS). Military medicine , 180 (10), 1041–1051 . Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.7205/MILMED-D-14-00686
