APA military mental health special

From

Mind Hacks: APA military mental health special:

“The latest edition of the American Psychological Association’s monthly magazine has a special feature on military mental health.

The issue is timely, as mental illness in the US military is at an all time high and military mental health services were recently described as ‘woefully inadequate’ by a Pentagon task force.

…it’s an interesting peek into the coming wave of mental health care changes that have been initiated by the large numbers of psychiatric casualties coming back from Iraq.

Curiously, the web page of the special feature has an interesting Freudian slip.

Link to special feature on military mental health.

I cannot understand how 90 years since shell-shock was identified military psychiatry is still in disarray.

Anyone interested in this topic MUST READ “A War of Nerves: Soldiers and Psychiatrists in the Twentieth Century” by Ben Shephard [Amazon.com]. It is a gripping story of war psychology, from its origins in WW1 to to todays “Culture of Trauma“.

The field is rife with nonsense and damaging practices. The truth is that the best defense against psychiatric casualties is in unit support and primary intervention (as close to the battlefield as possible). By the time the soldier is evacuated or “back home” the damage is done and treatment is much more difficult.