Equine Programs for Military Veterans and RCMP Officers with Occupational Stress Injuries: A Qualitative Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marla J. Buchanan ◽  
Colleen Haney ◽  
Katie N. Grimes
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Stress ◽  
Military Veterans ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Learning Program ◽  
Royal Canadian Mounted Police ◽  
Focus Group Research ◽  
Stress Injuries ◽  
Equine Assisted ◽  
Equine Assisted Learning

Alternative approaches to mental health and support programming for military veterans and for officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) with occupational stress injuries have recently received attention in the field of post-traumatic stress. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the experiences of military veterans and actively serving RCMP officers with occupational stress injuries who participated in an exploratory study using an equine-assisted learning program. Using a focus group research design, 20 veterans and five RCMP officers were interviewed about their experiences in a 4-week equine-assisted learning program. A thematic content analysis, following Braun and Clarke’s (2006) method, revealed five main themes: (1) appreciation for the value of learning new skills, (2) connection with the horse in terms of the human–animal bond, (3) self-regulation and learning to “speak horse,” (4) sense of accomplishment and competence, and (5) transferable skills to everyday life. The qualitative findings of this study provide support for the use of equine-assisted learning programming with military veterans and RCMP members and demonstrate potential as an alternative therapeutic intervention for occupational stress injuries in these populations.

Mental Health Outcomes of Peer-led Therapeutic Adventure for Military Veterans

2021 ◽  
pp. 105382592110495
Author(s):  
Joanna Ellen Bettmann ◽  
Ileana Anderson ◽  
Joe Makouske ◽  
Adam Hanley
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Military Veterans ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Group Model ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Community Based Interventions ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Post Traumatic ◽  
Adventure Program

Background: Skepticism of therapy and stigma are significant barriers for veterans with mental health issues. Therapeutic adventure shows promise in addressing veterans’ mental health needs while circumventing the stigma many veterans face in initiating treatment. Purpose: Given the small group model of therapeutic adventure programs, such programs may be ideal to provide social support for veterans and reduce mental health symptomology. The present study investigated: can a brief peer-led therapeutic adventure program modify veterans’ mental health symptoms? Methodology/Approach: The study's sample included 56 participants attending one Sierra Club Military Outdoors trip lasting at least three days and two nights and involving camping. Participants completed study measurements assessing depression, anxiety, stress, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms, substance misuse symptoms, and suicidality at pre-trip, post-trip, one-month post trip, six-months post trip, and 12-months post trip. Six-month and 12-month post-trip data was collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings/Conclusions: Results indicated significant reduction in mental health symptomology from pre-trip to post-trip, but showed few longer-term changes in mental health symptomology. Implications: The present study's findings are consistent with research suggesting improvements in overall psychological well-being immediately following a nature-based intervention and suggest the need for on-going, community-based interventions to support optimally military veterans’ mental health.

Impact of comorbid post traumatic stress disorder on multiple sclerosis in military veterans: A population-based cohort study

2021 ◽  
pp. 135245852110583
Author(s):  
Mark Leekoff ◽  
William Culpepper ◽  
Shan Jin ◽  
Terry Lee-Wilk ◽  
Mitchell Wallin
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Sclerosis ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
Military Veterans ◽  
Brain Mri ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Post Traumatic ◽  
The Impact

Background: Very little is known regarding the impact of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on the course of multiple sclerosis (MS). Objectives: To explore the impact of pre-existing PTSD on MS relapses, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) activity, and disability in a large population-based cohort. Methods: Military Veterans with MS and PTSD prior to symptom onset (MSPTSD, n = 96) were identified using the Department of Veterans Affairs MS databases. MSPTSD cases were matched to MS controls without PTSD ( n = 95). Number of relapses, number of new T2 lesions and new gadolinium lesions on brain MRI, and neurological disability were abstracted between 2015 and 2019. Results: The mean annualized relapse rate was greater in the MSPTSD group versus controls (0.23 vs 0.06, respectively; p < 0.05), as was the annualized mean number of new T2 and gadolinium-enhancing lesions on brain MRI (0.52 vs 0.16 and 0.29 vs 0.08, respectively; p < 0.05). Disability accrual (time to Disability Status Scale 6.0) was more rapid (23.7 vs 29.5 years, p < 0.05) in relapsing MS patients with PTSD. Conclusion: Patients with MSPTSD have higher disease activity and reach disability endpoints more rapidly than controls. This is the first study to show PTSD as a potentially modifiable risk factor for MS relapses, MRI activity, and disability.

Falling Out of Performance: Pragmatic Breakdown in Veterans’ Storytelling

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristiana Willsey
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Combat Veterans ◽  
Treatment Options ◽  
Military Veterans ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
The Public ◽  
Post Traumatic ◽  
The Military ◽  
War Stories ◽  
Careful Management

Unfortunately, coming to terms with disability and trauma are all too familiar foes for American combat veterans, many of whom receive inadequate, delayed, or nonexistent treatment options upon returning home. We conclude this volume with chapter 10, “Falling Out of Performance: Pragmatic Breakdown in Veterans’ Storytelling,” in which Kristiana Willsey provides new insights into the ways in which U.S. military veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan make meaning and process trauma through the sharing of narratives. She argues that naturalizing the labor of narrative—by assuming stories are inherently transformative, redemptive, or unifying—obscures the responsibilities of the audience as co-authors, putting the burden on veterans to both share their experiences of war, and simultaneously scaffold those experiences for an American public that (with the ongoing privatization of the military and the ever-shifting fronts of global warfare) is increasingly alienated from its military. Importantly, Willsey asserts that the public exhortations in which veterans tell their stories in an effort to cultivate a kind of cultural catharsis can put them in an impossible position: urged to tell their war stories; necessitating the careful management of those stories for audiences uniquely historically disassociated from their wars; and then conflating the visible management of those stories with the “spoiled identity” of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

scholarly journals Regions of white matter abnormalities in the arcuate fasciculus in veterans with anger and aggression problems

2019 ◽  
Vol 225 (4) ◽  
pp. 1401-1411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Szabolcs David ◽  
Lieke Heesink ◽  
Elbert Geuze ◽  
Thomas Gladwin ◽  
Jack van Honk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
Diffusion Tensor ◽  
Military Veterans ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Microstructural Properties ◽  
Uncinate Fasciculus ◽  
Arcuate Fasciculus ◽  
White Matter Connectivity ◽  
Diffusion Tensor Imaging Tractography

AbstractAggression after military deployment is a common occurrence in veterans. Neurobiological research has shown that aggression is associated with a dysfunction in a network connecting brain regions implicated in threat processing and emotion regulation. However, aggression may also be related to deficits in networks underlying communication and social cognition. The uncinate and arcuate fasciculi are integral to these networks, thus studying potential abnormalities in these white matter connections can further our understanding of anger and aggression problems in military veterans. Here, we use diffusion tensor imaging tractography to investigate white matter microstructural properties of the uncinate fasciculus and the arcuate fasciculus in veterans with and without anger and aggression problems. A control tract, the parahippocampal cingulum was also included in the analyses. More specifically, fractional anisotropy (FA) estimates are derived along the trajectory from all fiber pathways and compared between both groups. No between-group FA differences are observed for the uncinate fasciculus and the cingulum, however parts of the arcuate fasciculus show a significantly lower FA in the group of veterans with aggression and anger problems. Our data suggest that abnormalities in arcuate fasciculus white matter connectivity that are related to self-regulation may play an important role in the etiology of anger and aggression in military veterans.

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