Discussion: Traumatic Reactions-6411-wk3

Traumatic reactions can come in all forms and vary in level of intensity. How a person reacts to a trauma can be dependent upon how the trauma was experienced. Not everyone experiences trauma the same nor do they react the same. Regardless, the trauma reactions are real, they are often intense, and they require specialized skill to provide the appropriate support and sensitivities to work through the process.

Active duty military personnel, veterans, and noncombatants (those stationed in a war zone but not engaged in the act of combat) can experience multiple traumatic reactions to trauma. Reflect back upon the types of trauma you reviewed. Consider all the ways in which someone could react to horrific events that could occur during combat duty.

For this Discussion, review the resources. Then select one of the military personnel in the media. The traumatic reactions in the media may not be overt. Carefully listen to their stories and identify at least one reaction that these individuals experienced. Consider how you might show sensitivity by normalizing the reaction in the context of combat trauma.

By Day 3 (2 to 3 pages)

Post the identity of the military personnel you selected and describe one traumatic reaction you noticed. Explain how you might normalize this reaction in the context of combat trauma if you were supporting this individual. Finally, explain why this skill is important in the healing process for military personnel and veterans. Support your response using an article from the current literature.

Be sure to support your responses with specific references to the resources. If you are using additional articles, be sure to provide full APA-formatted citations for 

Required Readings

Dick, G. (2014). Social work practice with veterans. Washington, D.C.: NASW Press.

Chapter 10, “Veterans and Mental Health

Rubin, A., Weiss, E.L., & Coll, J.E. (2013). Handbook of military social work. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Chapter 9, “Psychopharmacology for PTSD and Co-Occurring Disorders” (pp. 141-162)

Chapter 16, “Navigating Systems of Care” (pp. 271-280)

Karstoft, K., Nielsen, A. S., & Nielsen, T. (2017). Assessment of depression in veterans across missions: A validity study using Rasch measurement models. European Journal Of Psychotraumatology, 8(1), 1326798.

Godfrey, K. M., Mostoufi, S., Rodgers, C., Backhaus, A., Floto, E., Pittman, J., & Afari, N. (2015). Associations of military sexual trauma, combat exposure, and number of deployments with physical and mental health indicators in Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Psychological Services, 12(4), 366-377.