Jim
Fausone
Veteran
Advocate
There
has long been a divide between service members and civilian health care
providers. According to a Pew study, 77% of veterans say they are not
understood by the civilian population, and 71% of civilians say they don’t
understand the military.
It
is vital to good patient care for civilian health care providers to understand
what these patients have experienced during their time in service. Only 36% of
veterans are treated at the Veterans Affairs Department, which means millions of family
members, as well as troops, are treated by civilian physicians. To start
bridging the gap between service members and civilians, the Pentagon is gearing
up to promote a new eight-hour course for health care providers to gain a
deeper understanding of military culture, titled “Military Culture: Core Competencies
for Health Care Providers.”
After
a decade of war, the military is breaking new ground during a decade of war,
not only helping service members but driving development in the entire
psychiatry field. Before the development
of this program the only course available for civilian physicians was a short
online course to cover rank, military occupational specialties, histories, and
traditions. Only 20% of the nation’s
medical schools teach military culture, and barely half mention the military
when teaching about post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain
injury.
According
to William Brim, a former Air Force psychologist who is now deputy director of
the Defense Department's Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP), this indicates that a much
broader outreach is needed. “If a service member were to go in for treatment
and their therapist takes an approach of, ‘You poor person, they brainwashed
you and took way your individualism,’ that might work for some but a lot of
service members would nod their heads, walk out and never be seen again,” Brim
said.
Brim
strives to change that dynamic. After 4 years of development, the course covers
four main subjects; health care provider beliefs and biases, military
definitions, language and culture, military functions, and the role of military
ethos in health behavior. The program
doesn’t shy away from difficult topics such as sexual assault, physical
injuries, traumatic brain injury, and mental health conditions either. The
course aims to convey a sense of the warrior ethos, or how service members and
veterans view themselves, and how health care providers can use that
information to provide the best treatment for the patient.
In
its development, the program sought input from veterans, troops, wounded
warriors, civilian providers, spouses, and National Guard reserve members, to
get their perspective. The primary goal,
if nothing else, is to have health care providers learn to ask a few basic
questions that would ultimately improve care for service members, veterans, and
their families.
The
new course awards those who take it with continuing education credits and will
be available through several different websites. The course was developed in part by the White
House’s Joining Forces initiative, so the course will be available on the CDP’s
website, the VA’s internal training site, the Pentagon’s website, the Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the American
Psychiatric Association,
and others.
Brim’s
organization is also developing a one-hour course for primary care providers,
the National Guard, service members, and families, to help them get the most
out of doctors’ appointments.
These
programs are a big step in improving the care veterans and service members
receive. New advancements in the field
of psychiatry and providing health care providers with a deeper understanding
of military culture promises to bridge the gap between service members and
civilian health care providers. This means better, more efficient care for some
of our nations most valued community members.
You
can read more in the Army Times Article here: http://www.militarytimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201405091134/BENEFITS06/305090063
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