Psychological Needs of Military Personnel and Their Families Are Increasing — Straining Military Health Care System, Reports APA Task Force
Source: American Psychological Association (APA)

According to the APA Report, a growing number of military personnel and their families are reporting emotional problems resulting from deployment stress. More than 30 percent of all soldiers met the criteria for a mental disorder but less than half (23-40%) of those with mental health concerns sought help. Moreover, these figures do not include those who don’t identify concerns or those who develop symptoms after returning from deployments.

Stress can be more severe for both military personnel and their families when certain risk factors exist, according to the report. Families with a history of problems, young families experiencing their first military separation or families who recently moved to a new duty station are more vulnerable to the stresses of deployment. Additionally, families with foreign-born spouses, service members without a unit affiliation or those serving in the National Guard or Reserves are more likely to experience higher stress levels.

Serious barriers to accessing quality mental health care for military personnel and their families are prevalent, the report found. The shortage of psychologists (close to 40% vacancy) in active duty slots hampers the availability of treatment. This shortage has increased stress and diminished morale among the providers remaining within the military care system. The increased job stress for these providers is leading to high attrition rates and creating an overflow of referrals to civilian psychologists who may not have as much training as military psychologists on issues related to the military and deployment.

+ Full Report (PDF; 428 KB)

This entry was posted on Monday, February 26th, 2007 at 3:59 pm and is filed under Documents in the news, Health and healthcare, Mental health and substance abuse, Military and defense. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.