TY - BOOK AU - Kieran,David TI - Signature Wounds: The Untold Story of the Military's Mental Health Crisis SN - 9781479892365 AV - UH629.3 .K54 2019 U1 - 362.2088/35500973 23 PY - 2019///] CY - New York, NY : PB - New York University Press, KW - Combat KW - Psychological aspects KW - Military psychiatry KW - United States KW - Psychology, Military KW - Soldiers KW - Mental health services KW - Mental health KW - Veterans KW - HISTORY / United States / 21st Century KW - bisacsh KW - Afghanistan KW - All-Volunteer Force KW - American military strategy KW - Army Family Covenant KW - Army KW - Bush administration KW - Combat Stress Control doctrine KW - Department of Veterans Affairs KW - Gulf War KW - Iraq War KW - Iraq and Afghanistan Wars KW - Iraq KW - Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Act KW - Mental Health Assessment Teams KW - Veterans' Suicide Prevention Hotline KW - asymmetrical warfare KW - behavioral health protocols KW - blast waves KW - deployments KW - firearms KW - mental health diagnoses KW - mental health issues KW - mental health KW - mentoring KW - military families KW - military KW - peacekeeping deployments KW - post-traumatic stress disorder KW - primary care KW - psychological consequences KW - public health KW - resilience KW - stigma KW - suicide prevention efforts KW - suicide rate KW - suicide risk factors KW - traumatic brain injury KW - veteran suicide N1 - restricted access N2 - The surprising story of the Army's efforts to combat PTSD and traumatic brain injury The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken a tremendous toll on the mental health of our troops. In 2005, then-Senator Barack Obama took to the Senate floor to tell his colleagues that "many of our injured soldiers are returning from Iraq with traumatic brain injury," which doctors were calling the "signature wound" of the Iraq War. Alarming stories of veterans taking their own lives raised a host of vital questions: Why hadn't the military been better prepared to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI)? Why were troops being denied care and sent back to Iraq? Why weren't the Army and the VA doing more to address these issues? Drawing on previously unreleased documents and oral histories, David Kieran tells the broad and nuanced story of the Army's efforts to understand and address these issues, challenging the popular media view that the Iraq War was mismanaged by a callous military unwilling to address the human toll of the wars. The story of mental health during this war is the story of how different groups-soldiers, veterans and their families, anti-war politicians, researchers and clinicians, and military leaders-approached these issues from different perspectives and with different agendas. It is the story of how the advancement of medical knowledge moves at a different pace than the needs of an Army at war, and it is the story of how medical conditions intersect with larger political questions about militarism and foreign policy. This book shows how PTSD, TBI, and suicide became the signature wounds of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, how they prompted change within the Army itself, and how mental health became a factor in the debates about the impact of these conflicts on US culture. The surprising story of the Army's efforts to combat PTSD and traumatic brain injury The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken a tremendous toll on the mental health of our troops. In 2005, then-Senator Barack Obama took to the Senate floor to tell his colleagues that "many of our injured soldiers are returning from Iraq with traumatic brain injury," which doctors were calling the "signature wound" of the Iraq War. Alarming stories of veterans taking their own lives raised a host of vital questions: Why hadn't the military been better prepared to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI)? Why were troops being denied care and sent back to Iraq? Why weren't the Army and the VA doing more to address these issues? Drawing on previously unreleased documents and oral histories, David Kieran tells the broad and nuanced story of the Army's efforts to understand and address these issues, challenging the popular media view that the Iraq War was mismanaged by a callous military unwilling to address the human toll of the wars. The story of mental health during this war is the story of how different groups-soldiers, veterans and their families, anti-war politicians, researchers and clinicians, and military leaders-approached these issues from different perspectives and with different agendas. It is the story of how the advancement of medical knowledge moves at a different pace than the needs of an Army at war, and it is the story of how medical conditions intersect with larger political questions about militarism and foreign policy. This book shows how PTSD, TBI, and suicide became the signature wounds of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, how they prompted change within the Army itself, and how mental health became a factor in the debates about the impact of these conflicts on US culture UR - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9781479841509 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/document/cover/isbn/9781479841509/original ER -