Types of Trauma: Military Trauma

This section includes information for professionals about the effects of war or risk for trauma in military service more generally. The material included here also considers combat effects on special populations.

Essential Information and Guidelines

• Iraq War Clinician Guide (IWCG)
  This manual, developed with the Department of Defense, addresses the unique needs of Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Appendix J has 10 separate educational handouts.
• The Returning Veteran of the Iraq War: Background Issues and Assessment Guidelines
  From the Iraq War Clinician Guide. Contains clinical information on the types of stressors veterans of the Iraq War will have encountered. Discusses comprehensive assessment and symptoms to assess.

Military Trauma Basics

• Combat Stress Injuries
  This PTSD 101 online course presents a model for discriminating normal, adaptive responses to combat stress from those responses that entail injury to the mind and brain.
• Traumatic Brain Injury and PTSD: Focus on Veterans
  Provides background information about traumatic brain injury and how it relates to PTSD. Includes implications for diagnosis and treatment.
• Casualty and Death Notification
  Describes procedure for professional counselors to deliver compassionate family notification of casualty or death.

Sexual Trauma in a Military Context

• Military Sexual Trauma: Issues in Caring for Veterans
  From the Iraq War Clinician Guide. Military sexual trauma (MST) happens to both women and men. Discusses the meaning, epidemiology, and psychological effects of MST. Information on screening for and assessing MST, as well as available treatments.
• Rape of Civilian Women in a War Zone
  Discusses civilian rape in war zones or refugee camps. Includes focus on cultural attitudes and stigma in different countries.

Specific Populations

• Traumatic Stress in Female Veterans
  Discusses stressors faced by female Veterans and reviews research on coping and VA changes in services for women.
• Peacekeepers and Traumatic Stress
  Discusses risk of trauma in peacekeeping situations, prevalence of PTSD in peacekeepers, and risk and resiliency factors.
• Mental Health Aspects of Prolonged Combat Stress in Civilians
  Describes how civilians respond to prolonged stress. This information is meant to be helpful to clinicians to predict how U.S. civilians may be affected by the war in Afghanistan.

Resources

• Videos: Military Trauma
  List of online educational videos for providers. Includes products focused on gender and ethnic differences in relation to military trauma and PTSD care.
• Web Links: Military
  Links to a wide variety of military resources, such as military branches, military family programs, and Veterans service organizations (VSOs).