The Need for Psychological Counseling in the US Military - Term Paper Example

Section/# Counseling in the Military: An Analysis of Three Key Issues Facing the Practice The recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have highlighted the need for psychological counseling in the United States military. Although there are a host of factors that point to this increased need and give evidence of the strains that soldiers must cope with, this brief analytical paper will seek to lay out four unique problems associated with counseling in today’s military as well as proffer to the reader the actions that could be undertaken to ameliorate these problems. As such, the problems are as follows: the increased incidence of counseling needs and psychological issues on returning, active duty, and inactive duty soldiers, the negative stigma that is oftentimes associated with seeking counseling and the political desire to paint a favorable image of the military and the wars that have been fought; thereby encouraging the under-reporting of psychological issues and counseling services required by today’s military personnel, and the lack of financial resources to deal with the preponderance of counseling and psychological needs that today’s military personnel demand. Accordingly, each of these unique issues will form a useful element of analysis within this brief paper and work to shed light on the state of the current military counseling and psychological engagement process with its shareholders. The first of these issues is perhaps the most important with regards to understanding the sheer size and scope of the issue. It has recently been reported by a number of research studies that the true extend of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) that is experienced by soldiers returning from the field of combat is greatly higher than has previously been thought or anticipated. Furthermore, what is unique about the psychological wounds that many soldiers develop during their time within the service is that these are not often exhibited in the same visually obvious ways that another type of war wound might be seen (Nordland 2006). For those soldiers who have shed blood or lost appendages in the service of their country there is a great deal of fanfare, attention, and praise; however, when a returning soldier suffers the lingering issues associated with PTSD there are no such fanfares, parades, or recognitions. Rather, the media, the military, and society have developed an almost unspoken yet tacit avoidance of this issue due to its uncomfortable nature. As such, this analysis will seek to briefly analyze the issue of PTSD as well as to determine the extent to which combat veterans suffer from its effects. Further, an attempt will be made to seek to understand why there is such a hesitance among society to engage with and attempt to understand those suffering from this particular form of trauma (Rofkhar 2011). With regards to the actual scope of the issue, PTSD and other psychological injuries sustained while on active duty in or around the field of conflict are experienced in 1 out of every 8 returning soldiers (Sloan et al 2012). Naturally, it is reasonable to expect that as with any psychological disorder, there are a high number of cases that go undiagnosed and untreated. However, notwithstanding this fact, the sheer number of veterans that suffer from PTSD is enough to alert the reader/researcher that this is the single largest injury grouping that soldiers experience within the field of combat. With regards to the negative stigma that is oftentimes associated with counseling and psychological issues that are developed by soldiers during their time in the military, there is a clear and unmistakable drive to under-report and minimize these issues as a means to provide a positive face for both the military’s recruiting efforts and ignore any and all negative externalities that may result from the actions that the United States military has taken in a diverse array of theaters around the world. In this way, the issue itself is uncomfortable not because society, the media, nor the military find such a psychological trauma as fraudulent or somehow contrived. Rather, the hesitancy to speak openly about these mental wounds is born out of an inherent belief among many members within society that the ultimate culpability for these mental wounds is rooted within society as a whole (van Minnen et al 2012). This level of guilt with respect to the unlawful ways in which wars of the past 50 years have been prosecuted makes all individuals involved increasingly hesitant to speak about such a topic due to the fact that they know and understand that many o f these brave young men and women have been forever and inalterably harmed as a result of the experiences they have had; experiences that have effected little to no positive benefits on the lives of indeterminate masses of people across the world (Searcy et al 2012). Similarly, the recent cuts to nearly every sector of the federal government have meant that the military is no stranger to the economic difficulties that have defined the past 5 years. Accordingly, it would come as no surprise to the reader/researcher that a great deal of funding is required to staff and offer premier counseling services to the many men and women of today’s military that require these. As such, the reduced level of funding that has been made available to nearly all aspects of the military has necessarily meant that shortages are being seen in many key areas. The most unfortunate fact concerning such a shortage of personnel and funding to adequately meet the needs of the high percentage of military personnel that a require such services is that it only serves to compound the issues that have previously been raised (McHugh et al 2012). Due to the fact that such a high prevalence of psychological needs demand counseling and psychological services as well as the negative stigmas both within society and within the military that discourage individual service members to seek these services, it only stands to reason that only a very small fraction of those in need are actually going through the proper channels to receive the help they need. As this is no doubt the case, the fact that the military budget is strained to find the means to pay for such counseling needs and provide an adequate level of care for those soldiers that do come forward is indicative of the sheer size and scope of the issue (Biehn et al 2012). Accordingly, the level to which each of these factors ties in to one another acquaints the reader/researcher with the full extent of the issues that currently exhibit themselves in the military with relation to counseling and psychiatric needs. As there is no single fix for the problems that have been noted, this author would like to discuss some of the most salient ways in which the underlying causal factors for these problems can be adequately addressed and minimized over time. With respect to the high rates of psychological trauma that soldiers experience, proper education and preliminary understanding of what constitutes a need for counseling and psychiatric help would be first on the list of suggestions with regards to ways that military personnel could be educated and encouraged to take an active role in their own psychiatric health both during their time in and out of the service. Such a regimen could be conducted during a few brief hours of training every month as a reminder that such services exist for the soldier and are put in place for their health and benefit. Secondly, with respect to the negative stigma that is oftentimes attributed to the existence of such counseling needs, there is little that the military can do about how this stigma exists within society at large; however, it is possible to change the stigma that exists within the culture of the military itself. This can be accomplished through training of shareholders and leadership personnel as well as implementing clear and concise guides to how situations concerning counseling and psychological help should proceed. By developing a clear plan with relation to such an incidence, the response will be according to procedure and not tinged by the possibly biased views of a given shareholder or leadership figure. Lastly, with relation to the budgetary shortfalls, this is perhaps the most difficult of the issues to work to fix. As the prevalence of counseling needs has been aptly demonstrated, it is beholden upon the federal government and the military to allocate the requisite amount of funding to such programs as a way to increase shareholder health and work to allay and avert future issues that could potentially be much more damaging if not treated. References Biehn, T. L., Elhai, J. D., Fine, T. H., Seligman, L. D., & Richardson, J. (2012). PTSD factor structure differences between veterans with and without a PTSD diagnosis. Journal Of Anxiety Disorders, 26(3), 480-485. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2012.01.008 McHugh, T., Forbes, D., Bates, G., Hopwood, M., & Creamer, M. (2012). Anger in PTSD: is there a need for a concept of PTSD-related posttraumatic anger?. Clinical Psychology Review, 32(2), 93-104. Nordland, R., & Gegax, T. (2006). Stressed Out at the Front. Newsweek, 143(2), 34-37. Rofkahr, T. (2011). learning to 'ASIST'. Warrior Citizen, 56(4), 12-13. Searcy, C. P., Bobadilla, L., Gordon, W. A., Jacques, S., & Elliott, L. (2012). Pharmacological Prevention of Combat-Related PTSD: A Literature Review. Military Medicine, 177(6), 649-654. Sloan, D. M., Bovin, M. J., & Schnurr, P. P. (2012). Review of group treatment for PTSD. Journal Of Rehabilitation Research & Development, 49(5), 689-701. doi:10.1682/JRRD.2011.07.0123 van Minnen, A., Harned, M. S., Zoellner, L., & Mills, K. (2012). Examining potential contraindications for prolonged exposure therapy for PTSD. European Journal Of Psychotraumatology, 31-14. Read More