Trends in Mental Health Services Utilization and Stigma in US Soldiers From 2002 to 2011

Quartana, Phillip J.; Wilk, Joshua E.; Thomas, Jeffrey L.; Bray, Robert M.; Olmsted, Kristine Rae; Brown, Janice; Williams, Jeffrey; Kim, Paul Y.; Clarke‐Walper, Kristina; Hoge, Charles W.

doi:10.2105/ajph.2014.301971

Cited by 75 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 34 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…UK research indicates that between 2008 and 2011 the likelihood of service personnel endorsing stigma or BTC had significantly reduced (Osorio et al, 2013). US research shows a similar decrease between 2002 and 2011 (Quarana et al, 2014).…”

Section: Stigma Alleviation Successmentioning

confidence: 91%

U.K. Army Medical and Unit Welfare Officers' Perceptions of Mental Health Stigma and Its Impact on Army Personnel's Mental Health Help Seeking

Keeling

Bull

Thandi

et al. 2017

Military Behavioral Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Mental health stigma and barriers to care (BTC) have been reported as impeding help-seeking among UK military personnel. A deeper understanding of the impact of stigma and BTC on help-seeking may be accessible via the perceptions of UK military health service providers. Secondary thematic analysis of interviews with 21 UK Army Welfare Officers and Medical Officers was conducted to investigate their perceptions of how mental health stigma, BTC, and stigma alleviation efforts impact UK Army soldiers' help-seeking. Three master themes were identified; Military culture; Barriers to care: and, Stigma alleviation success. The Welfare and Medical Officers perceived that military culture and its promotion of stoicism lead to certain beliefs surrounding legitimacy of mental health problems, confidentiality, and concerns for career impacts that affect UK Army personnel seeking help. They also reported perceiving stigma to have decreased and attributed this to some of the stigma reduction interventions currently in place. Recommendations for education based stigma reduction methods are made, including reframing beliefs surrounding the need to "soldier on" and that help-seeking is a weakness, providing consistent advice about confidentiality of health service attendance, and education for leaders to promote symptom recognition and treatment seeking.

show abstract

Section: Stigma Alleviation Successmentioning

confidence: 91%

U.K. Army Medical and Unit Welfare Officers' Perceptions of Mental Health Stigma and Its Impact on Army Personnel's Mental Health Help Seeking

Keeling

Bull

Thandi

et al. 2017

Military Behavioral Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Since October 2001 through June 2014, a total of 2.6 million American military personnel have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan (Burnam et al, 2009;Quartana et al, 2014), and an additional 2.7 million served earlier in Vietnam. The percentage of service members who have PTSD rose from 1% in 2004 to more than 5% in 2012.…”

Section: Mentally Ill Service Men/women and Veteransmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insufficient Dollars and Qualified Personnel to Meet United States Mental Health Needs

Weil¹

2015

Journal of Nervous &Amp; Mental Disease

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The American populace currently supports the need for providing additional mental health services for adolescents who frequently express anger and mood instability and maybe are at risk for major psychiatric disorders and behavioral problems; Vietnam, Iraqi, and Afghanistan veterans or military personnel still on duty diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, or other similar combat-related disabilities; the approximately 1 million prisoners currently incarcerated primarily because of substance abuse and needing medically related rehabilitative services; and senior citizens who experience dementia and depression and require improved therapeutics. The problems outlined herein are as follows: far too limited monies are being spent for mental health services (5.6% of total US expenditures for health or roughly one fifth of what is consumed for hospital care); effective therapies are often lacking; and there is a shortage of qualified mental health personnel except in upscale urban and suburban areas. Unfortunately, these problems are so immense that, even with enhanced prioritization of our available resources, they are still not entirely solvable. The American public may continue to impart lip service when attempting to respond to our nation's mental health needs or may decide to spend vastly more money for such care. The latter choice may not be forthcoming in the near future for various cultural-societal-clinical-fiscal reasons.

show abstract

“…In fact, a recent study found that only 75% of CAF Regular Force personnel who met diagnostic criteria for major depression at any point in the previous year had sought professional mental health care over the same time period [11]. While this treatment gap is much smaller than in other populations [36,37], 25% of depressed personnel remain undiagnosed. Clinical data can only be used to identify major depression in care-seeking individuals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Incidence of major depression diagnoses in the Canadian Armed Forces: longitudinal analysis of clinical and health administrative data

Thériault

Hawes

Garber

et al. 2019

Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose Major depression is a leading cause of morbidity in military populations. However, due to a lack of longitudinal data, little is known about the rate at which military personnel experience the onset of new episodes of major depression. We used a new source of clinical and administrative data to estimate the incidence of major depression diagnoses in Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) personnel, and to compare incidence rates between demographic and occupational factors. Methods We extracted all data recorded in the electronic medical records of CAF Regular Force personnel, at every primary care and mental health clinical encounter since 2016. Using a 12-month lookback period, we linked data over time, and identified all patients with incident diagnoses of major depression. We then linked clinical data to CAF administrative records, and estimated incidence rates. We used multivariate Poisson regression to compare adjusted incidence rates between demographic and occupational factors. Results From January to December 2017, CAF Regular Force personnel were diagnosed with major depression at a rate of 29.2 new cases per 1000 person-years at risk. Female sex, age 30 years and older, and non-officer ranks were associated with significantly higher incidence rates. Conclusions We completed the largest study to date on diagnoses of major depression in the Canadian military, and have provided the first estimates of incidence rates in CAF personnel. Our results can inform future mental health resource allocation, and ongoing major depression prevention efforts within the Canadian Armed Forces and other military organizations.

show abstract

Trends in Mental Health Services Utilization and Stigma in US Soldiers From 2002 to 2011

Cited by 75 publications

References 34 publications

U.K. Army Medical and Unit Welfare Officers' Perceptions of Mental Health Stigma and Its Impact on Army Personnel's Mental Health Help Seeking

U.K. Army Medical and Unit Welfare Officers' Perceptions of Mental Health Stigma and Its Impact on Army Personnel's Mental Health Help Seeking

Insufficient Dollars and Qualified Personnel to Meet United States Mental Health Needs

Incidence of major depression diagnoses in the Canadian Armed Forces: longitudinal analysis of clinical and health administrative data

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About