Citation

Rowan AB, Varga CM, Clayton SP, Martin Zona DM. Mil. Med. 2014; 179(9): 973-978.

Affiliation

Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center, 2200 Bergquist Drive, Suite 1, Lackland Air Force Base, TX 78236.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Association of Military Surgeons of the United States)

DOI

10.7205/MILMED-D-13-00518

PMID

25181714

Abstract

This study examined the relationships between referral source, career impacts, and diagnostic severity among service members seeking mental health intervention in a deployed setting. Data were drawn from the mental health records of 1,640 Army service members presenting for outpatient mental health services while deployed in Afghanistan.

RESULTS suggested that self-referrals were significantly less likely to have contact made with their command or to experience potentially career impacting recommendations. Overall, greater than 80% of military personnel were returned to duty with no limits and 60% were assigned either no diagnosis or a mild/moderate diagnosis. These findings indicate that seeking psychological services is much less likely to impact a service member's career when self-initiated. Given the significant concerns about career impacts among many service members in need of psychological services, these findings should be incorporated in information campaigns to promote early help seeking.

Language: en