Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Lived Experience of Military Mental Health Clinicians: Provided Care to OIF and OEF Active Duty Service Members Experiencing War Stress Injury

Vandegrift, David W.
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9176-3406
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1518115325115816

Abstract Details

2017, Psy. D., Antioch University, Antioch Seattle: Clinical Psychology.
Military mental health clinicians (MMHCs) have been essential to Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. They served in extreme stress conditions, including on the frontlines. As co-combatant/clinician, the MMHC bridged unique perspectives on the effects of war stress experienced by Active-Duty Service Members (ADSMs). To date, no study has focused uniquely on MMHCs narratives as they provided care from this multiple perspective. This investigation was carried out from a phenomenological “Duty to military mission or service member?” This dilemma could not be reconciled that resulted in unrealized fulfillment of duty. MMHCs responses to unrealized duty defined an overarching polarity of Integrity—Corruption. A hermeneutic approach was used to identify the author&perspective. A single, open-ended question was asked of seven MMHCs about lived experiences while serving, resulting in in-depth interviews. These were textually coded. Though clinician positive and negative experiences were consistent with previous research, significant differences bear discussion. Following data analysis, participants identified duty as the superordinate theme that led to the question, #x2019;s relevant understandings before, during, and after the interview process. In reconstructing and contextualizing interview material, one finding was that MMHCs were required to operate in a place of turbulence between contradictory military and psychological traditions. Another finding concerned a growing divisive fissure between military and the public at-large, impacting reintegration efforts for those who serve. Public and governmental silence about traumas of ADSMs and MMHCs suggests a parallel, cultural dissociation occurring about war trauma. A question is posed if diagnosing trauma as pathology is a further way that external, contextual forces are consistently kept unformulated, distanced, or denied. Rather than locating the etiology and treatment entirely within the individual—resulting in blaming and isolating of those who serve—the suggestion is made for widespread discussion of socioeconomic and political factors that are behind psychological war injury. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive, http://aura.antioch.edu/ and OhioLink ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu
Mark Russell, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Philip Cushman, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Li Ravicz, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
163 p.
Armed Forces; Behavioral Psychology; Mental Health; Military History; Multicultural Education; Public Policy; Therapy
military history, military psychology, deployment, phenomenology, resiliency, trauma, Adjustment Disorders, PTSD, war stress, evidence based treatment, hermeneutics, unformulated experience, moral pain, dissociation, demobilization

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Vandegrift, D. W. (2017). Lived Experience of Military Mental Health Clinicians: Provided Care to OIF and OEF Active Duty Service Members Experiencing War Stress Injury [Doctoral dissertation, Antioch University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1518115325115816

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Vandegrift, David. Lived Experience of Military Mental Health Clinicians: Provided Care to OIF and OEF Active Duty Service Members Experiencing War Stress Injury. 2017. Antioch University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1518115325115816.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Vandegrift, David. "Lived Experience of Military Mental Health Clinicians: Provided Care to OIF and OEF Active Duty Service Members Experiencing War Stress Injury." Doctoral dissertation, Antioch University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1518115325115816

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

antioch1518115325115816
470
© 2017, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Antioch University and OhioLINK.