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Ecosystemic Effects Of Military Sexual Trauma In Male Service Members And Veterans, Jessica A. Carlile

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

Military sexual trauma (MST) represents a significant, endemic concern in the United States Armed Forces. Although approximately 50% of individuals who experience MST are male, few studies have been published examining the overall experience of males who survived MST, and no known project has recruited a sample unaffiliated with Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Therefore, this study investigated the immediate and enduring ecosystemic effects of MST on male service members and veterans recruited entirely outside the VHA system. To evaluate the depth and richness of human experience, 12 participants—10 veterans and two active duty service members (50% Euro-American, 58% partnered, 75% …

Treating Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Aging Veterans: What Works?, Heather Renee O'Dell Lewis

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a serious condition with debilitating symptoms which affects military veterans and has been understudied in the older population. Aside from treating the veterans of the Vietnam War and World War II, as service members from more recent conflicts age, the mental healthcare system needs to be able to treat them with empathy and effective therapies. As there is a need for future research focusing on this population, this paper reviews the current literature and utilizes Grounded theory to further the research related to PTSD in aging veterans. A selection of mental health clinicians with experience …

Possible Causes Of Increased Domestic Violence Among Military Veterans: Ptsd Or Mefloquine Toxicity?, Shawn J. Gourley

Montview Journal of Research & Scholarship

After more than a decade at war, our returning service members and their families are facing enormous amounts of difficulty when returning home. PTSD and TBI, the signature wounds of these wars, have been well covered in the media. The family struggles have remained hidden and mostly undiscussed. These families are facing very specific issues in military relationships like infidelity, substance misuse, and intimate partner violence; the latter of which military families are three times more likely to experience when compared to the civilian population. There is a potential effect on caregiver burden in the role of PTSD as a …

Educating Spouses May Be Key To Helping Veterans, Shawn J. Gourley

Montview Journal of Research & Scholarship

Veterans’ and family members are facing great difficulties when the veteran returns home to transition into civilian life. Marriages are struggling, and families are being torn apart when the veteran returns home with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Although there are many programs that have been created to educate spouses about PTSD, however, they often fall short of being able to prepare a family for the actual experience of transition. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is starting to come up with programs to help couples and research is starting to gain empirical support; there are still many couples left …

Veteran As Leader: The Lived Experience With Army Leader Development, Michael James Kirchner

Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study examined the lived leader development experience of Post 9/11 Army veterans while serving in the armed forces. At least $10-$15 billion is spent annually on leadership development in the United States and human resource executives claim developing leaders is their number one priority over the next five years. Simultaneously, companies actively hiring veterans claim the former service member's leadership abilities are their most desired quality. Inspection of the Army’s leader development program offers an opportunity for employers to integrate revised approaches in their own leadership development initiatives.

A purposive sample of ten Army veterans—six males and four …

The View Never Got Old, Alicia Dietz

Mighty Pen Project Anthology & Archive

In poetic fashion, a combat helicopter pilot contemplates the discipline of flying, and the losses she has suffered.

Articles, stories, and other compositions in this archive were written by participants in the Mighty Pen Project. The program, developed by author David L. Robbins, and in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, offers veterans and their family members a customized twelve-week writing class, free of charge. The program encourages, supports, and assists participants in sharing their stories and experiences of military experience so both writer and audience may benefit.

Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy For Veteran Survivors With Full Or Partial Ptsd, Mark Aaron Mayfield

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Symptom severity among veteran survivors with partial or full posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) continues to increase, with approximately 40% of U.S. veterans reporting significant symptomology 10 years after initial onset of the condition. Veteran survivors often struggle to find therapeutic interventions that meet their specific needs and have a difficult time maintaining a therapy that is both equitable and evidenced based. Grounded in the Rogerian, client-centered theory, the purpose of this qualitative collective exploratory case study was to explore the effects of equine-facilitated psychotherapy with 3 veteran survivors with partial or full PTSD. A 4-stage process was used to collect …

Peaches And Pound Cake, Steve Tedder

Mighty Pen Project Anthology & Archive

A soldier in Vietnam befriends the new guy.

Articles, stories, and other compositions in this archive were written by participants in the Mighty Pen Project. The program, developed by author David L. Robbins, and in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, offers veterans and their family members a customized twelve-week writing class, free of charge. The program encourages, supports, and assists participants in sharing their stories and experiences of military experience so both writer and audience may benefit.

Lost Innocence And Learning To Hate, Steve Tedder

Mighty Pen Project Anthology & Archive

A grunt in Vietnam witnesses the cruelty of his enemy, aimed at the children he’s trying to help.

Articles, stories, and other compositions in this archive were written by participants in the Mighty Pen Project. The program, developed by author David L. Robbins, and in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, offers veterans and their family members a customized twelve-week writing class, free of charge. The program encourages, supports, and assists participants in sharing their stories and experiences of military experience so both writer and audience may benefit.

Pawns, Richard H. Geisel

Mighty Pen Project Anthology & Archive

A soldier accustomed to walking point in Vietnam finds himself on a different assignment, where he's troubled by so much sound and light.

Articles, stories, and other compositions in this archive were written by participants in the Mighty Pen Project. The program, developed by author David L. Robbins, and in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, offers veterans and their family members a customized twelve-week writing class, free of charge. The program encourages, supports, and assists participants in sharing their stories and experiences of military experience so both writer and audience may benefit.

Examining Ptsd Symptoms And The Effectiveness Of Group Therapy Among African American And Caucasian Veterans, Jennifer A. Coleman

Theses and Dissertations

Millions of Americans have served in the military, and improved survival rates in wars have increased the percentage of those who return home. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the most prevalent mental health diagnoses for veterans. Although few studies have examined the link, previous research as well as the minority stress model and transgenerational trauma theories, suggest that race may be associated with PTSD, particularly in military samples. The current study examined whether there were differences in PTSD symptomology (global and symptom cluster-specific) based on veterans’ race and whether group therapy effectively reduced symptoms of PTSD. Data were …

Frames Of Military Veterans In Letters To The Editor In Us Newspapers, Matthew Kleinsorge

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This ethnographic content analysis of veterans in letters to the editor builds on the existing literature in two ways. First it examines the new time frame of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Second it deals with new data—letters to the Editor and Op-Eds. The new timeframe allows me to address the following questions. (1) What types of frames are currently associated with veterans after over eleven years of continuous combat? (2) Does the amount of sympathy in framings of veterans found by this research seem to differ from the amount of sympathy found in the framings of veterans in …

Crashing An Officers-Only Cav Party, Steve Tedder

Mighty Pen Project Anthology & Archive

Thirty years after Vietnam, an enlisted man attends a reunion intended only for the officer fliers of his troop. He finds a warm welcome, and learns, again, that all warriors are a band of brothers.

Articles, stories, and other compositions in this archive were written by participants in the Mighty Pen Project. The program, developed by author David L. Robbins, and in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, offers veterans and their family members a customized twelve-week writing class, free of charge. The program encourages, supports, and assists participants in sharing their stories …

Influence Of Self-Stigma, Distress Disclosure, And Self-Compassion On Post-Traumatic Stress Reactions In Deployment Veterans, June Marie Ashley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Military deployments can contribute to significant changes among the service members who experience them. Particularly regarding traumatic or highly stressful deployment experiences, the potential exists for posttraumatic stress reactions with both detrimental outcomes and beneficial influence. The present study explored this spectrum of reactions through the lenses of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and posttraumatic growth (PTG). Given the well-researched presence of stigma within military culture toward psychological distress, consideration was given to how stigma may influence severity of PTSD and degree of PTG. Rather than focusing on public stigma, the present study explored the possible influence of internalized stigma, known …