The Treatment of Veterans and First Responders

Introduction 

In many cases, the first responders are confronted with life-threatening, life-threatening, and life-depleting circumstances. They are also the first to provide emotional and physical assistance to catastrophe sufferers. Despite their importance to the whole community, these responsibilities are taxing on first responders and place them at greater risk of stress over time. As a result, first responders are often exposed to traumatic occurrences, such as life-threatening circumstances and the severe injuries or deaths of their fellow officers and citizens. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) seems far more common among first responders than in the general population.

Preserving national security and maintaining the continuation of key national activities necessitates protecting the health of the people. In contrast, employees in the fields of public health and safety face many physical and mental health issues due to their work-related exposure to natural or human-caused catastrophes (Haugen et al., 2012). First responders who work in these fields face many risks due to their professions’ very specialized nature. Death, sorrow, injury, suffering, and loss exposure (whether direct or indirect) are examples, as are long hours of labor, several shifts per week, little sleep, physical difficulties, and other unpleasant events. Disasters caused by nature or technology may have devastating effects on a community’s social, family, economic and physical structures(Hinton et al., 2021). It’s very uncommon for the disaster response team to be made up of professional and volunteer groups. Disaster workers, both paid and unpaid, may suffer from collateral damage, such as interpersonal and intrapersonal conflicts.

Chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a serious condition. It’s not a myth that people get traumatic brain injuries in accidents. Everything from insomnia to low testosterone to depression to hyper-vigilance is a genuine issue in men’s lives. However, most veterans’ spouses refuse to bring up the fact that their partner cannot sleep in the same bed as them. Because of this, a partner of a war veteran has a variety of options for maintaining a healthy relationship while also meeting the wants and desires of a fellow human being(Haugen et al., 2012). They are making self-love a priority, for example. Having been in a long-term relationship with someone who has worked in a stressful workplace for over a decade, it’s time for them to get the help they need(Hinton et al., 2021). This will cover getting enough sleep, eating well, exercising frequently, and managing low testosterone. It’s also critical to learn how to be a safe communicator. Treatment for PTSD via exposure treatment is a thing of the past. You are torturing the individual by making them go through the experience again. Veterans should be allowed to talk about their history only if they want to. If a person is trying to communicate, they must assume responsibility for ensuring the other person understands (Gehrke et al., 2019). Covey advises readers to seek understanding before seeking understanding in his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”

Diagnostics and evaluation are still needed in the case of screening, but they may be used as a decisionaid. Persons who pass the pre-screening test should move on to the clinical evaluation, which a doctor or other qualified clinician may use to establish a diagnosis and arrange therapy, including diagnoses of co-occurring disorders such as depression or traumatic brain injury (TBI). These symptoms should be taken into consideration and the intensity and functional limitations that go along with them to make an accurate diagnosis (Hinton et al., 2021). Using brief symptom-based screening measures is an effective screening method for first responder veterans. Multiple short screening measures are used to identify potential post-traumatic stress disorder (post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD]). The VA/DoD guideline (2010) mentions that clinic personnel may not discuss a person’s full life history of trauma on the first appointment if a symptom-driven scale that is cued to a specific incident is used. Diagnose any trauma-related symptoms in less than 4 minutes. As with the PDHA and PDHRA tests, the PC-PTSD is the most frequently utilized screening tool among active-duty military personnel and veterans.

Stress responses screening is closely related to PTSD screening. There are many ways to identify those at risk for developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The Sheehan Perceived Stress Scale, the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale, and the recently developed Response to Stressful Experiences Scale are among the instruments used to screen for stress reactions in military and veteran populations.

Conclusion

Screening for PTSD is critical for identifying individuals who need care. Stigma and screening time and the screening location should be addressed (DoD, VA, and nonmilitary settings). Though several screening instruments exist, the DoD and VA employ just a small subset of them. Trauma exposure is a factor in certain treatments, whereas symptoms play a role in others. Self-administered screening tools are available, as are those given by a physician. Even while screening may help identify those at risk for PTSD, a diagnosis can only be established when a thorough clinical examination by a trained expert is completed. You may use various diagnostic tools, such as structured interviews and symptom-based rating scales to determine what’s wrong. A person with a diagnosis of PTSD may benefit from a variety of treatment options, which are discussed in detail in the next chapter.

References

Gehrke, E. K., Myers, M. P., Mendez, S., Mckissock, B., Lindsley4&, J., &Tontz, P. (2019). Multi-Site Psychophysiological Analysis of Equine Assisted Healing in Combat Veterans and First Responders. International Journal of Health Sciences, 7(4), 1-8.

Haugen, P. T., Evces, M., & Weiss, D. S. (2012). They are treating post-traumatic stress disorder in first responders: A systematic review. Clinical psychology review, 32(5), 370-380.

Hinton, E., Steel, Z., Hilbrink, D., &Berle, D. (2021). Anger and predictors of drop-out from PTSD treatment of veterans and first responders. Behavioral and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 1-15.