I believe that the intensive mental health services and closely monitored follow up care that the PCLN model provides would offer the best possible outcome for the patient. However, my intervention team would be comprised of licensed clinical Social Workers, psychologists and psychiatrists who would begin to deliver prolonged exposure therapy (PE) to the patient as soon as the patient is medically stable. The intervention team would also consist of licensed nurses who would provide case management services to assist the patient in navigating the military’s health benefit systems and ensuring that the patient does not have lapses in care during their rehabilitation process. Prolonged exposure therapy is recognized by the Institute of Medicine as the “only treatment approach with sufficient efficacy data for combat related PTSD” (Tuerk, et al., 2011). The treatment team would also work with the patient’s family in order to take care of their psychosocial needs as well as teaching the family about the patient’s injury, PTSD, depression and suicide warning…
Public safety personnel are exposed daily to a variety of potentially traumatic events, including human tragedies such as abused and distressed children, the aftermath of domestic violence, horrific motor vehicle accidents, disturbing crime scenes, disasters, and acts of terrorism. Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) is an effective and valuable crisis intervention system designed to mitigate the impact of these traumatic incidents on police officers and other emergency responders.…
This article is about post-traumatic stress disorders. Post-traumatic stress disorders is probably the most commonly studied post-disaster psychiatric disorder. This review aimed to systematically assess the evidence about post-traumatic…
In November of 2007, the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) issued new post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) practice guidelines. Using a grading system from “A” to “E,” the guidelines label several PTSD treatments as “A” treatments based on their high degree of empirical support. They include: Prolonged-exposure therapy, Cognitive-processing therapy, Stress-inoculation training, Eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing, or EMDR, or Medications.…
Being physically and emotionally healthy is a requirement to being a EMS provider, and CISD works to maintain the emotional well being of employees. The research clearly shows that critical incident debriefing in beneficial to people who have experienced a traumatic event. Also, it is vastly different than going to see a physiatrist, because it is based on group therapy where all the people there have been affected by the same traumatic event. This allows the program to be more welcoming, because you realize that you are not the only one feeling the affects of this event. I believe that knowing you aren’t alone in feeling this way is a major stress reliever because you now know that there are people you can talk to about this. Along with reducing stress and depression in the people that go, CISD is said to increase cooperation within the team which has been traumatized. This is very important because team work is vital to EMS personnel. Overall, I believe that CISD is very important to the well being of individuals who have experienced a traumatic…
EMS workers are especially inclined to be subject to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Exposure to stressful situations, for which they have little or no training on how to deal with emotional stress, place these workers at a very high risk for chronic stress, critical incident stress, and PTSD. This connection will be further examined by relating PTSD to EMS workers, coping with PTSD, and resources which should be made in place, but are not yet generally available to most workers.…
PTSD is a term used to explain the consequences of exposure to, or confrontation with stressful events that an individual experiences as being highly traumatic (Aideuis, 2007). The experience must involve an actual or threatened death, a serious physical injury, or a threat to physical and/or psychological integrity. The diagnosis of PTSD fails to adequately describe the effects that the trauma has on a child. It does not recognize the child’s loss of a sense of safety, loss of trust, and decreased self-worth. The child then withdraws and shows a disinterest in social interactions. Nevertheless, a PTSD diagnosis can help victims of trauma gain understanding, acceptance, and appropriate treatment of their symptoms.…
Contemporary Challenges in Mental Health Care Provision and Management 2 B73M20 Cohort 09/09 Student ID: 20328…
Overall, posttraumatic stress is a mental disorder caused by catastrophic events. This disorder is diagnosed by flashbacks from a trauma someone experienced. Veterans in combat have a high percentage of being diagnosed with this stress disorder because of death risks. There is various symptoms people knowledge with posttraumatic stress, as well as treatments. This disorder affects a person’s ability to concentrate and interact…
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a form of treatment recommended by psychologists for PTSD. In the study of Blanchard, Hickling, Devineni, Veazey, Galovski, Mundy, Malta, and Buckley (2003), researchers conducted an experiment on motor vehicle accident survivors to compare the effectiveness of CBT and other treatments. The use of CBT, essentially, is a combination of different cognitive and behavioral procedures (Blanchard et. al., 2003). Relaxation training is required for every patient. After patients have successfully…
Two quantitative surveys are given to military personnel before, after, and following the treatment process, which are the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) and the PTSD Checklist (PCL). The CAPS is given to guide researchers in making a current diagnosis of PTSD, examine a lifetime diagnosis for PTSD, and assessing PTSD symptoms over the past week (Weathers, 2013). The PCL is given to monitor military personnel symptom change before and after treatment and an overall screening for PTSD (Weathers, 2013). The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) is given through a set of semi-structured questions designed to confirm the PTSD diagnosis and assess mental health (First, Spitzer, Gibbon, & Williams, 1996). A focus group is conducted, where military personnel become educated on PTSD, create goals for treatment, acquire breathing and relaxation techniques, and manage future planning (Astramovich,…
During my time in the Marine Corps I have seen the problems and troubles first-hand that Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) has on all branches of service. In this paper I will argue that there is still a lot of testing that can be done to better diagnose weather a service member has PTSD or not. I will give first-hand accounts on people that I have known that have fought this and survived and I will also give an account of someone I know who fought and lost because no one knew he had PTSD. I will show the struggle that service members face day in and day out suffering from PTSD. I believe that our government should be doing more to help fight PTSD and also to help heal the service men and women who are suffering from PTSD.…
“Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an important and well-documented mental health outcome among seriously injured civilian and military survivors of trauma” (Holbrook, 2010) The awareness of this disorder was first recognized as a true psychological disorder in 1980 when it appeared in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, due to the large amount of Vietnam veterans presenting symptoms related to their military service. This disorder is thought to have first been experienced in Vietnam, but “Incidents of post-traumatic stress disorder have been documented as far back as ancient Greece.” (Melchior, 2011) As we enter the twelfth year of combat operations in the Middle East, the incidents of violence surrounding returning Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (OIF/OEF) veterans is increasing. There has been a dramatic rise in suicides and homicides perpetrated by combat veterans who…
Throughout the past century, awareness and acceptance of PTSD has risen in militaries around the world. The disorder has evolved from being at its earliest stage, the Swiss disease, then the railway spine, in the nineteenth century; traumatic hysteria and traumatic neurasthenia, later on; shell shock, and during and post-World War II, combat fatigue. Not until the Vietnam War, was the term PTSD globally accepted and treated as a legitimate mental disorder. Today’s efforts in detection and early treatment of the disorder have come at the cost of much skepticism inflicted on many victims in the past.…
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a very important topic because it can affect many people now, and with todays’ society, can be a very touchy but interesting topic. One out of every three troops has been diagnosed with PTSD and less than 40% have found or looked for help. 1 out of 5 active duty soldiers try to commit suicide every day (PTSD Foundation of America). In the mid 1970’s the term was added to the DSM III (Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). It was not until 1980 that the term PTSD was formally recognized. In 1987, a revised edition (DSM III-R) was released with a new diagnostic criteria which made a huge impact for our veterans and their diagnosis (Unknown). In 2007, PTSD was at its highest for…