This session addresses the determinants of mental health treatment seeking among military personnel and interventions to increase the percentage of military personnel seeking treatment. Determinants of treatment-seeking address both barriers and facilitators. Barriers include such factors as the perceived stigma associated with harm to one’s career and differential treatment by fellow service members, negative attitudes toward mental health treatment, not having enough time to work treatment into a busy schedule, and a preference for handling problems oneself. Facilitators of treatment-seeking include the support of family and friends, leaders, and unit members, positive attitudes toward mental health treatment, and a recognition that symptoms are interfering with performance and relationships.
Interventions to reduce barriers and increase facilitators of treatment-seeking are discussed, including emphasizing mental health treatment as a mechanism for increasing resilience, modifications to the number and duration of treatment sessions, and increasing supportive behaviors by fellow unit members for helping service members receive and remain in treatment.
Thomas Britt, Ph.D., is a Trevillian Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Clemson University. He received his PhD from the University of Florida in 1994 before entering active duty as a research psychologist in the US Army at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. His current research programs investigate how stigma and other barriers to care influence employees in high-stress occupations seeking needed mental health treatment, and the identification of factors that promote resilience among employees in high-stress occupations. His research has been funded by multiple grants and contracts from the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community.
Cover Image: US Air Force Illustration by Airman 1st Class Devin N. Boyer, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
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