- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 410
Stress is sometimes referred to as an "invisible" ailment, since the casual observer doesn‘t/won‘t notice it. Worse, while we wouldn‘t hesitate to slap a shell dressing on a sucking chest wound, sometimes people hesitate (or even neglect) to even try to help somebody else who‘s under too much stress ...
Some food for thought:
Poll gauges troops‘ mental health
By DANIEL LEBLANC
Friday, July 19, 2002 – Globe and Mail
Canadian Forces personnel, especially those who have been on foreign deployments, are more likely than civilians to suffer mental distress, a poll done for the Armed Forces suggests.
Despite that, Forces personnel often are reluctant to seek professional help.
"Canadian Forces members are more likely than other Canadians to experience mental distress," the poll of 27,000 Forces members says. "Nonetheless, only about one member in 10 consulted a health professional about their emotional or mental health in the [previous] year."
More than half of Canadian Forces members reported occasional feelings of nervousness (54 per cent); restlessness (48 per cent); sadness (30 per cent) and hopelessness (21 per cent).
The Department of National Defence was concerned enough by those findings to commission Statistics Canada to conduct 8,000 interviews on mental health with members of the Armed Forces. The results will be released next year and will be used as part of the Forces‘ changes to health services, which are focused in large part on mental health.
For now, the Forces are telling troops that they will not face retribution if they seek professional help. "We‘re here to look after our people. . . . We‘re not there to take people‘s jobs away," said navy Captain Margaret Kavanagh, who runs the Forces‘ health-protection services.
In the poll, members also expressed dissatisfaction with health services in the Forces: Sixty per cent of them said they would visit civilian medical facilities if they could.
Capt. Kavanagh said the Forces are working to address those concerns, mainly by promising confidentiality to patients and by trying to ensure that each member would receive continuous treatment from a single doctor.
++++
Military people have more mental distress than other Canadians, according to survey
Canadian Press
Thursday, July 18, 2002
OTTAWA (CP) - Members of the Canadian Forces are more likely to experience mental distress than their civilian counterparts, a survey released Thursday says. A "significant proportion" of the military people questioned reported feeling mental distress in the month before the survey was conducted in 2000. More than half reported nervousness, slightly less than half reported restlessness.
"One in three members report symptoms associated with depression for a period of at least two weeks in the year preceding the survey, either in the form of feelings of sadness, feeling blue or depressed (15 per cent) or in a loss of interest in things they usually enjoy (17 per cent)," the survey found.
The symptoms were more common among women, people age 31 to 45, single people and those who have been on two or more overseas deployments in the past 10 years.
A third of the people in the Forces have had two or more deployments in the last 10 years. Many have been sent on three or more missions.
The military has long been troubled by the incidence of post-traumatic stress among its members, especially those who have been on repeated deployments in difficult regions. It has set up programs to help its personnel, but the survey suggests there are suspicions in the rank and file about these efforts.
Only 10 per cent of the troops said they consulted a health professional about mental or emotional troubles.
A quarter of the members surveyed reported they didn‘t get the medical care they felt they needed at least once during the previous year. About 25 per cent of these said they feared that discovery of a health problem would jeopardize their careers.
The military medical system got poor marks for communication and only a third of respondents expressed confidence in the system.
Generally members of the Forces said they were in good health, but while a quarter of civilians say they enjoy "excellent health" only a fifth of the military claimed that status.
About a quarter of the military reported injuries in the previous year that limited their activities for a time. Most of these were sprains and strains suffered while playing sports.
The survey, conducted by Decima Research on behalf of the Forces, involved more than 27,000 people - about half of the regular force.
- 30 -
Some food for thought:
Poll gauges troops‘ mental health
By DANIEL LEBLANC
Friday, July 19, 2002 – Globe and Mail
Canadian Forces personnel, especially those who have been on foreign deployments, are more likely than civilians to suffer mental distress, a poll done for the Armed Forces suggests.
Despite that, Forces personnel often are reluctant to seek professional help.
"Canadian Forces members are more likely than other Canadians to experience mental distress," the poll of 27,000 Forces members says. "Nonetheless, only about one member in 10 consulted a health professional about their emotional or mental health in the [previous] year."
More than half of Canadian Forces members reported occasional feelings of nervousness (54 per cent); restlessness (48 per cent); sadness (30 per cent) and hopelessness (21 per cent).
The Department of National Defence was concerned enough by those findings to commission Statistics Canada to conduct 8,000 interviews on mental health with members of the Armed Forces. The results will be released next year and will be used as part of the Forces‘ changes to health services, which are focused in large part on mental health.
For now, the Forces are telling troops that they will not face retribution if they seek professional help. "We‘re here to look after our people. . . . We‘re not there to take people‘s jobs away," said navy Captain Margaret Kavanagh, who runs the Forces‘ health-protection services.
In the poll, members also expressed dissatisfaction with health services in the Forces: Sixty per cent of them said they would visit civilian medical facilities if they could.
Capt. Kavanagh said the Forces are working to address those concerns, mainly by promising confidentiality to patients and by trying to ensure that each member would receive continuous treatment from a single doctor.
++++
Military people have more mental distress than other Canadians, according to survey
Canadian Press
Thursday, July 18, 2002
OTTAWA (CP) - Members of the Canadian Forces are more likely to experience mental distress than their civilian counterparts, a survey released Thursday says. A "significant proportion" of the military people questioned reported feeling mental distress in the month before the survey was conducted in 2000. More than half reported nervousness, slightly less than half reported restlessness.
"One in three members report symptoms associated with depression for a period of at least two weeks in the year preceding the survey, either in the form of feelings of sadness, feeling blue or depressed (15 per cent) or in a loss of interest in things they usually enjoy (17 per cent)," the survey found.
The symptoms were more common among women, people age 31 to 45, single people and those who have been on two or more overseas deployments in the past 10 years.
A third of the people in the Forces have had two or more deployments in the last 10 years. Many have been sent on three or more missions.
The military has long been troubled by the incidence of post-traumatic stress among its members, especially those who have been on repeated deployments in difficult regions. It has set up programs to help its personnel, but the survey suggests there are suspicions in the rank and file about these efforts.
Only 10 per cent of the troops said they consulted a health professional about mental or emotional troubles.
A quarter of the members surveyed reported they didn‘t get the medical care they felt they needed at least once during the previous year. About 25 per cent of these said they feared that discovery of a health problem would jeopardize their careers.
The military medical system got poor marks for communication and only a third of respondents expressed confidence in the system.
Generally members of the Forces said they were in good health, but while a quarter of civilians say they enjoy "excellent health" only a fifth of the military claimed that status.
About a quarter of the military reported injuries in the previous year that limited their activities for a time. Most of these were sprains and strains suffered while playing sports.
The survey, conducted by Decima Research on behalf of the Forces, involved more than 27,000 people - about half of the regular force.
- 30 -
