Training on Sleep, Brain Injuries, Substances, PTSD, Suicide, Ethics, and Family issues in Military
- drheatherpoma
- Feb 21, 2021
- 3 min read
Today I'm in a training with Star Behavioral Health Providers (SBHP). This training is intended for civilians who are interested in working with military and veterans. Although I have a leg up because of my background in the military, I'm learning a lot of more recent data from when I was discharged and working with the military every day as a mental health specialist. The information that they're covering covers these areas:
- sleep disorders
- brain injury and concussion
- alcohol and drug use
- military family life
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) assessment and treatment
- suicide
- ethical issues specific to military/veteran populations.
I'm excited to get updated information about trauma, more understanding of the newer research on TBIs, getting more information about sleep disorders and substance use in this population, and suicide. I'm particularly excited that they are covering information important in working with military families. As someone who works with military individuals and people with trauma and has a great interest in families, I'm so glad to see this issue being covered more.
Some take home points in each area:
Sleep disorders have a lot of overlap with most other mental health issues. In many cases the sleep disorders resolve if we address the mental health issue, but if they don't resolve there are very effective treatments for them on their own. Many individuals have sleep disorders such as sleep apnea that need to be addressed medically before we point to a mental health issue.
Most brain injuries in military populations are NOT incurred during deployments-they're often in training accidents or motor vehicle accidents. There is a large overlap with TBI and other mental health conditions; many people struggle with both.
Most individuals with a substance use problem also have experienced a traumatic event in their life, indicating that SUDs are related to trying to cope with difficult events.
We need to carefully assess for suicidality and work with a client to help them come up with a plan that works for them to get through a suicidal crisis. Working on a coping plan together means working with them to see what kinds of music will help them when they are stressed, because music is a "mood amplifier." We need to make our plan as easy as possible and assess for how likely people are to follow through and figure out where the safety plan would be kept and make the plan uniquely tailored to them, letting them write it out themselves. The areas to use in making a safety plan are looking at warning signs, internal coping strategies, distractions, family/friends, emergency contacts, and safe environment.
Ethical topics covered included dual relationships and dilemmas regarding disposition-driven diagnoses.
And my specific interest, in military families there is indication that more time deployed indicates more likelihood of divorce, but that there are several factors that make couples less likely to struggle in this area. If military spouses use task-oriented coping, have a sense of social support from family and friends, and have a perceived sense of military community. Military children are generally resilient; although they have more stressors than nonmilitary families, they also have access to additional resources and supports. Things that military families experience that most others don't include frequent moves (PCSes), difficulty finding spouse employment opportunities, frequent deployments, extended separation, and transitioning out of the military. Things to build family resilience include improving physical and mental health, improving communication and problem-sharing, improving support system, and improving organizational patterns and identifying meaning and purpose to a military family identity.
Over the next few weeks, I'm going to try to add some of the resources that have come from this training to our website, with a collection for each area of training, since it's all top of mind right now. Because of my focus in military families on this post, I want to link to some family resources today.
Here's a link to some apps that are free to download for military families with children based on sesame street. https://sesamestreetformilitaryfamilies.org/mobile-apps/ If you click the link at the top left ("for military families"), you can access a lot more information for military families.
Operation Purple-free summer camps for military children:
FOCUS (Families Overcoming Under Stress) trains military families (including couples and children) on issues such as emotion regulation, communication, problem-solving, goal setting, managing deployment, and includes a free mobile apps and online training. https://focusproject.org/
I hope this helps some of you that are looking for resources!
And I wanted to show myself as an Army mental health specialist, and encourage you to reach out for support if you need it. The above resources are all free and available for any military families.
#SBHP #militaryfamilies #training #PTSD #sleep #SUDs #TBI #concussion #sleepdisorders #trauma #music #resilience #FOCUS #OperationPurple #SesameStreet
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