Mental health articles

Problems in Reintegration
Another area that has received increasing attention is the tremendous strain of readjustment to returning to civilian life following combat deployment. In prior conflicts, service members were deployed to forward combat areas, returning to relatively safe rear bases to restock, receive new instructions, and rest and recuperate.
Following their combat deployment, service members took a long trip home, followed by demobilization at their home base. This allowed for a gradual decompression.
By contrast, today’s missions require continual vigilance, whether on convoy, patrolling the streets of an Iraqi village or the hills of Afghanistan, or returning to base camp. In addition, service members can be in a fi refi ght one day, and a week later can be home with their families. The skill set required to be a successful service member can help individuals throughout their subsequent civilian life. However, it is impractical to expect service members to simply “turn off” the vigilance and
aggressiveness that helps them survive and accomplish a mission in-country once they return to their families back home.
Such transitions can take months, and some personnel will require assistance beyond existing programs and efforts that have currently been implemented. One progressive approach by the National Guard includes pre-deployment preparation retreats geared toward preparing service members, and often family members, on what to expect during deployment as well as post-deployment
reintegration retreats focused on facilitating the transition back to home life.
Although laudable, there is unfortunately little research as to the impact such programs have on reducing substance abuse and mental health problems among service members or their families.

Tags: reintegration