Assignment: Working With Noncombatants—Vicarious or Secondary Trauma-6411-wk5Ass
Vicarious trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder are closely related because the symptoms of each condition are similar. What distinguishes each condition from one another is how the trauma was experienced. For this Assignment, review Lt. Commander Malstrom’s experience with vicarious trauma in the media resources. As a starting point, think about how this individual who is trained military but a noncombatant could have mitigated his trauma. Using this as an example, complete the following assignment:
Please note that the military personnel in the media discuss graphic details of their combat experiences, which may be disturbing. Please consult your faculty if you experience trauma related to the media. If, after consultation, you feel you need further services, please contact the Walden Counseling Center.
The Assignment (2–3 pages):
Scenario:
You are a social worker assigned to a military installation and you are given the task of educating the following individuals (noncombatants) who are preparing to deploy in a combat zone on vicarious or secondary trauma:
- Healthcare providers—military physicians and nurses
- Air Force maintenance and logistics support personnel
- Military reporters
Then provide the following:
- Describe how you would contextualize vicarious and secondary trauma.
- Describe risk factors of vicarious and secondary trauma.
- Identify strategies to avoid vicarious or secondary trauma.
- Explain how you might encourage support if someone experienced vicarious or secondary trauma.
- Describe the sensitivities a social worker would need to have in order to educate effectively these noncombatants.
Support your plan with at least two scholarly articles from the Walden Library.
Required Readings
Dick, G. (2014). Social work practice with veterans. Washington, D.C.: NASW Press.
Chapter 11, “Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder” (pp. 169-186)
Rubin, A., Weiss, E.L., & Coll, J.E. (2013). Handbook of military social work. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.
Chapter 6, “Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in Veterans” (pp. 81-98)
Chapter 7, “The Neurobiology of PTSD and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)” (pp. 99-112)
Chapter 8, “Treating Combat-Related PTSD with Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy” (pp. 113-140)
Military.com Benefits. (2014). Post-traumatic stress disorder. Retrieved from http://www.military.com/benefits/veterans-health-care/posttraumatic-stress-disorder-overview.html
Bell, N. S., Hunt, P. R., Harford, T. C., & Kay, A. (2011). Deployment to a combat zone and other risk factors for mental-health related disability discharge from the U.S. Army: 1994–2007. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 24(1), 34–43.
Foreman, T. (2018). Wellness, exposure to trauma, and vicarious traumatization: A pilot study. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 40(2), 142-155.
Johnson, W. J., Johnson, M., & Landsinger, K. L. (2018). Trauma-informed supervision in deployed military settings. Clinical Supervisor, 37(1), 102-121.
Neswald-Potter, Rhonda & Simmons, Robyn Trippany (2016). Regenerative supervision: a restorative approach for counselors impacted by vicarious trauma. Canadian Journal of Counseling & Psychotherapy, 50(1), 75-90.
Note: Retrieved from Walden Library databases.
Wallace, R. E., Cusack, S., Gulin, S., & Vrana, S. R. (2017). Therapist-Level Predictors of Vicarious Traumatization in Mental Health Providers. Therapist-Level Predictors Of Vicarious Traumatization In Mental Health Providers, 3. doi:10.1037/e512992
Vicarious Trauma and PTSD in Military Personnel
Vicarious Trauma and PTSD in Military Personnel
Program Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
RICHARD MALMSTROM: I was having the flashbacks. The intrusive memories. I
can remember, probably the worst one I had was as a reserve chaplain I was
serving as a school administrator along with being an associate pastor. And I had
set up some training for my teachers. And I set up a room for them to get training
on CPR. And when I walked into the room to see the dummies scattered all over
the floor– and it’s just the training dummies. It just has the head and the torso.
And in my mind’s eye, I was seeing the real thing. Not just a training dummy. And
having the same visceral reaction to it. The increased heart rate. The sweating.
The inability to concentrate. All of those things. It was just like I was back seeing
these things again.
So I had a lot of the intrusive memories. I had trouble concentrating. I had trouble
remembering simple words, like telling my kids to pick up their bowl to put it in
the sink. I had to motion to the pick up your, your, you know, your– the thing. And
my boys would say, you mean the bowl. And I’d say, yeah. I couldn’t even think
of that.
I think what really freaked me out was I sitting at a stoplight one time, and not
knowing where I was. I’d stopped at a stoplight and for a good minute or so I
didn’t know if I was going to work, or coming home from work. Why I was in the
car. What time of day it was. I had no clue what I was doing in the car, period. Or
how I got there. And it shook me quite a bit.
I found myself very short tempered. I could go from 0 to 60, just like that. It took
nothing to get me to lose my temper. Didn’t want to even go outside for a
fireworks display around 4th of July. The sounds, the sights, the smells– all of it
was too familiar.
Even just driving down the road seeing an animal that had been hit with a car, it
would bring back memories, and I would see these things. Even in the church
giving communion I would see the faces of some of these dead Marines
sometimes. It was very difficult. I had a lot of the intrusive memories.
Numbing, as well. I had a hard time showing empathy. One of my secretaries
when I returned home, her son was murdered on her doorstep– or on his
doorstep. He was shot in the head in front of his daughter. And my immediate
reaction was well, there’s just one. What’s everybody so upset about? It’s only
one. Let’s have the funeral, and let’s get back to work. And I didn’t see the
problem with it. I was smart enough not to say that out loud, especially talking
with the mother. I knew the right thing to say. To say, I’m sorry for you’re loss.
©2013 Laureate Education, Inc. 1
Vicarious Trauma and PTSD in Military Personnel
And this is awful and terrible. But inside, I just couldn’t connect. I just didn’t think
that it was that big of a deal. It took a long time to regain some of that empathy.
And eventually my wife, God bless her, she finally said, well, you need to go get
some help. And she was at the point of saying if you don’t get some help, I am
going to leave. So eventually, I said, well, OK. Fine. I’ll call the VA. They got me
in to see a doctor right away, and started seeing somebody and talking with
them.
But that took about three years of working on it. It didn’t happen overnight. It took
about three years of talking with a counselor to get through to the other side, and
finally get onto an even keel. And then to turn those experiences around and use
them for positive experiences, rather than negative.
CLAUDE BOUSHEY: The kind of things I went through through my recovery
were both physical, mental, and emotional. Believe it or not, the physical part
was a lot easier to cover than the mental and the emotional, because physically
you kind of know you’ve got a broken leg. It needs to heal. That bone needs to
grow back. You have a crushed spine, so the spine needs to grow back.
Those were easier dealing with the mental part . I actually lost a buddy in combat
during my recovery. So that was pretty hard, I mean, hitting that portion.
Accepting what you are now. Walking around or getting wheeled around in a
wheelchair. Walking with a walker or cane. Having things attached to your body
that’s not supposed to be there to help you recover, of course. It’s mentally
draining, because you want your body the way it was before. Before June 13,
2004.
And once I kind of accepted that hey, this is the new you, things got better
mentally and emotionally. And it was a lot better on my family, as well. And there
was a time– rooms like this, I’d sit in the dark and just hang out and relax. And
that was my time, because I just wanted to reflect on what happened. And you go
through a phase of woe is me. Why me? Why did it happen to me? Why couldn’t
it happen to anybody else? I never did anything wrong. Why’d it happened to
me? So you go through that phase. And you go through a phase of oh, man, I
destroyed a $6 million helicopter. I let my unit down. They’re one less helicopter
in the fight in Iraq. So you go through that phase. I let my unit down. I want to go
back.
So September ’05 is when I went back on flying status, and then we started
gearing up for the next tour for Iraq. And I volunteered to get on the next boat
over to the next tour with my unit. So that was a goal that I need to fulfill.
Because mentally, I felt that I didn’t get the job done the first time, because I
crashed right in the middle of the tour. So I got sent home. And I wanted to
complete a full tour for me, mentally.
©2013 Laureate Education, Inc. 2
Vicarious Trauma and PTSD in Military Personnel
I was offered other positions– to PCS. To change duty stations and go
somewhere else and to stop deploying. But I elected to stay there and deploy
with the unit.
STEVEN MATOS: I got back in August of ’03, and it wasn’t really the best
homecoming. I ended up getting divorced. I ended up losing my youngest son. I
went home to see my mom and dad and my brother and grandmother back in
New York. And that was nice, but living here in Virginia– I dove into my work, I
just did everything I could to keep busy.
My sleep was horrendous. I wouldn’t fall asleep until seven in the morning, the
next day. I’d be up all night. Just couldn’t sleep until, finally, body was tired
enough that I would just pass out.
Relationship wise the smallest things set me off. I don’t care if it was a little bit of
spilled milk or just a dumb question, and I’m jumping at the hinges. And that’s
when I realized, OK, something’s not right. And I got in trouble. I had an incident
at home where I got arrested. And I ended up doing time in jail for it. And that’s
when I realized, yes, I was wrong. I need help, because this is getting to the point
that it’s dangerous.
Vicarious Trauma and PTSD in Military Personnel
Additional Content Attribution
IMAGES:
Images provided by http://www.istockphoto.com/
MUSIC:
Creative Support Services
Los Angeles, CA
Dimension Sound Effects Library
Newnan, GA
Narrator Tracks Music Library
Stevens Point, WI
Signature Music, Inc
Chesterton, IN
Studio Cutz Music Library
Carrollton, TX
©2013 Laureate Education, Inc. 3
http:http://www.istockphoto.com