• Military and Substance Abuse
• Trauma Addiction: Safety and Stabilization for the Addicted Survivor of Trauma
• Don't Make it Worse! Use of Alcohol or Drugs After Trauma
• Secret Diet Disasters of Trauma Survivors

• Trauma and the Post-Institutionalized Child - Adoption and Trauma Related issues

• Surviving the Crash: Stress Reactions of Motor Vehicle Accident Victims
• The Emotional Toll of Motor Vehicle Accidents on Truck Drivers

• Supporting Our Soldiers-PTSD Info For Chaplains
• Reintegration & Readjustment Program For Iraqi Veterans: for officers returning from the war in Iraq.
• Cop Talk: Beating the Holiday Blues
• The Echoes of Violence in The Police Family
• POLICE SUICIDE: Understanding Grief & Loss
• Confidentiality in Counseling: What Police Officers Need To Know
• Police Officers: Traumatic Spending: A Reaction to Critical Incident Stress
• Paramedics and Burnout: Coping and Prevention Suggestions

• On Being Invisible In The Mental Health System
• The Nature of the Child
• Traumatic Stress and Children
• Stress Responses in Sexual Trauma Victims and in Others Experiencing Overwhelming Events
• CHILDHOOD AND ADULT SEXUAL VICTIMIZATION: Living in the Aftermath of Transgression and Quest for Restoration of the Self

• Nurses and Compassion Fatigue
• Preventing Compassion Fatigue: Power Point Presentation
• Professional Quality of Life Manual (ProQOL)
• Understanding and Preventing Compassion Fatigue - A Handout - For Professionals
• Supporting Our Soldiers - PTSD Info For Chaplains
• The Art and Science of Caring for Others without Forgetting Self-Care
• Compassion Fatigue: An Introduction
• The MASTERS Process: Transforming Your Career and Life
• Compassion Fatigue: A Crucible Of Transformation
• When Helping Hurts
• Vicarious Trauma in Attorneys
• Bosnia's Death Highway: My Personal Story of Trauma Work, Compassion Fatigue and Hope.

• Domestic Violence and the Gay Community: A Right to Peace and Safety
• I Was Raped: A Survivor explores an accusation that has divided the Spelman and Morehouse family
• Treating People of Varied Cultures: Honoring the Individual in Context
• Surviving and Thriving: Understanding Asian Americans' Experiences of Relationship Trauma
• Latinas in Pursuit of Healing: Cultural Implications for Counseling Sexually Abused Latinas
• I Will Survive: The African-American Guide to Healing from Sexual Assault and Abuse (excerpt)
• Trauma in American Indian Communities
• Challenges and Obstacles in Treating Mentally Ill African American Patients

• Military Sexual Trauma
• Legal Tools for Survivors of Sexual Assault
• Art Exhibit: A Woman's Journey from Domestic Violence Victim to Survivor
• Acquaintance Rape: A Matter of Consent
• I Will Survive: The African-American Guide to Healing from Sexual Assault and Abuse (excerpt)
• Rape Trauma Syndrome: The Journey to Healing Belongs to Everyone
• Peaceful Heart: A Woman's Journey of Healing After Rape
• Dealing with Domestic Abuse: Lessons from Kathy
• The Ties That Bind Captive to Captor- Stockholm Syndrome
• Understanding the Victims of Spousal Abuse

• Will Trauma Grief Counseling Help?
• Exorcising Ghosts: The Counting Method and Traumatic Death Imagery
• Help for the Holidays: Ideas for the Bereaved
• Understanding Different Grieving Patterns in Your Family
• Sudden Loss - Impact of a grief-crisis intervention immediately after a sudden violent death on the survivor's ability to cope.
• Recovery From Unnatural Death
• Psychotherapy of Bereavement After Homicide: Be Offensive

• The Emotional Impact of Reporting War at Home
• A Primer on Covering Victims
• PTSD 101 for Journalists
• Three Acts of Trauma News
• Survivors and the Media

• Domestic Violence Against Men: Bryan's Story
• Suffering in Silence: The Problem of Male Sexual Abuse
• Wounded Boys/Heroic Men: A Man's Guide to Recovering from Child Abuse

• PTSD and Family Members: The Hidden Face of PTSD
• Partners with PTSD

• Understanding Complex Trauma, Complex Reactions, and Treatment Approaches
• Major Depressive Disorder: A Condition That Frequently Co-Occurs with PTSD
• Exposure To A Traumatic Event Does Not Automatically Put A Person On A Path To Develop PTSD: The Importance of Protective Factors To Promote Resiliency
• Applying the Brakes - Traumatic Memories
• Finding a Good Lawyer for Your Traumatized Client
• Posttraumatic Therapy
• The Counting Method for Ameliorating Traumatic Memories
• Stress Responses in Sexual Trauma Victims and in Others Experiencing Overwhelming Events Helpful Strategies for Self, Children, Supporters, and What Trauma Therapists Really Do
• The Counting Method as Exposure Therapy: Revisions and Case Examples
• Trauma & Recovery: an REBT Perspective
• Listening to the Lessons of Survivors. Sharing their Truths and their Lessons

• Life After Breast Cancer: Surviving & Thriving
• How to Improve Strength and Mobility without Really Exercising
• Exercise and Aging
• Fibromyalgia: What It Is And How To Manage It
• How Exercise Helps Symptoms Of PTSD
• Menopause Is A Natural Part Of A Woman's Lifecycle

• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Workplace What Employers and Coworkers Need to Know

• Healing the Invisible Wound
• Trauma Survivors Share Tips for Therapists Dealing with Trauma
• Open Letter to Trauma Survivors
• How to Choose a Trauma Therapist: Therapy for Post-Traumatic Stress (PTSD) and Dissociative Conditions
• Helping A Person Who Is Suicidal
• S.V.'s Story: My Survival From Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Survivors, How To Write Your Personal History
• Finding The Right Therapist For You
• Anniversary Reactions: A Survivor's Guide on How to Cope
• Healing from Shame Associated with Traumatic Events
• Ninth Grader Interviews Frank Ochberg on PTSD
• How to Cope with PTSD and the Holiday Season

• Cultivating Resiliency in Youth
• Cultivating Resiliency
• The Resilient Child

• Helping Traumatized Children at School
• Inner City Children of Trauma: Urban Violence Traumatic Stress Response Syndrome (U-VTS) and Therapists' Responses
• School Disaster: Planning and Initial Interventions
• Bound By A Trauma Called Columbine

• Posttraumatic Stress, Mental Health Professionals, and the Clergy: A Need for Collaboration, Training, and Research
• How to Provide Spiritually Sensitive Trauma Care
• "Trauma and Spirituality"

• Guilt Following Traumatic Events

• Utilizing First Person Story with Trauma Survivors in Bosnia and Sri Lanka: Metaphors create a symbolic congruence that is 'inclusive' and universal across cultures
• GFW Founder, Frank Ochberg spent a week in Sri Lanka Helping
• Hurricane Opens Trauma Wounds
• 9-11 ANNIVERSARY REACTIONS: An interview with Frank Ochberg, M.D.
• Victims of Disasters: Helping People Recover From Acute Distress to Healing and Integration
• Terrorism: September 11, 2001. "Trauma, Grief, and Recovery"

• Finding Hope after Head Injury and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
• Military and Substance Abuse
• Military Sexual Trauma
• Suicide and the Military
• Military PTSD Family Resources
• Will Trauma Grief Counseling Help?
• Preventing Compassion Fatigue: What Veteran Spouse/Partner Caregivers Need to Know
• Keeping Your Relationship Healthy When Your Veteran Spouse/Partner Is Injured
• Issues and Answers on the Home Front
• Veterans and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Conversation with Dr Frank Ochberg
• Post Traumatic Stress and the Military
• There's Nothing Wrong With Me!
  

Supporting Our Soldiers-PTSD Info For Chaplains

By Dr. Angie Panos

Our country is facing a crisis of gigantic proportions. Tens of thousands of male and female, young US soldiers have been maimed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even if they come home with their physical bodies and health intact, there is another war that they must fight within themselves. Large numbers of these returning veterans are showing signs of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The average age of the combat personnel is only 19. Their lack of life experience and stage of spiritual development leave them feeling like there is no way to cope with the atrocities they have witnessed. Once called "shell shock" or "combat fatigue," PTSD displays symptoms that include flashbacks, nightmares, panic attacks, feelings of detachment and estrangement from others, irritability, rage, trouble concentrating, emotional outbursts and sleeplessness. PTSD in veterans often coexists with other disorders such as clinical depression and substance abuse.

Another serious psychiatric fallout from the war that we are seeing in mostly young, lower enlisted returning soldiers is suicide. While there are numerous reports of suicides, exact statistics are difficult to gather, as many of these veterans have declined to participate in programs that could monitor them. Services to veterans are severely under funded and are challenged to handle the overwhelming numbers of injured solders. Parents of the veterans that suicide often report that their son or daughter could not get images of dead bodies and injured children out of their minds.

Soldiers typically have lower rates of PTSD in wars that have clear missions, clear enemies, time frames, achievable objectives and adequate resources to carry out the mission. Soldiers typically have higher rates of PTSD in wars with confusion about who is the enemy- such as we are seeing in Iraq. Combat against the insurgency happens in crowded streets, marketplaces and neighborhoods, places where innocent children are likely to be at risk for injury and death. Other factors that increase PTSD are unspecified or changing lengths of deployment, lack of clear mission, high civilian deaths, and lack of substantive rationale for the war.

What can you do in your role as a chaplain to rise to the challenge facing our countrymen? First, educate yourself on PTSD and the need for comprehensive treatment strategies, which include spiritual support. Next, develop resource networks that do outreach to veterans and provide linkages to comprehensive care. Finally, the great need for spiritual support, renewal and healing to the tens of thousands of veterans must be answered by all of us with the skills and opportunity to reach out to these soldiers and assist them in returning to productive lives.

Brief Bio:

Dr. Angie Panos is a psychologist and a board certified expert in traumatic stress with 25 years of experience. She is the mother of a daughter who is currently serving in the military. Dr. Panos is on the Chaplain Training Committee and trains volunteer chaplains for Intermountain Health Care and Primary Children's Hospital. She is on the Board of Directors of Gift From Within, a nonprofit organization that provides education and resources for trauma survivors and mental health counselors. For more information contact www.giftfromwithin.org

This article was suggested by The HealthCare Chaplaincy Contact: Rev. Dr. Martha R. Jacobs, BCC Managing Editor, PlainViews - an e-newsletter for chaplains and other spiritual care providers

Tweet