Name:
Publisher version
View Source
Access full-text PDFOpen Access
View Source
Check access options
Check access options
Abstract
Background The British Army is predominately composed of young men, often from disadvantaged backgrounds, in which Depression is a common mental health disorder. Objectives To construct a predictive model detailing the presentation of depression in the army that could be utilised as an educational and clinical guideline for Army clinical personnel. Method and Participants Utilising a Constructivist Grounded Theory, phase 1 consisted of 19 interviews with experienced Army mental health clinicians. Phase 2 was a validation exercise conducted with 3 general practitioners. Results Depression in the Army correlates poorly with civilian definitions, and has a unique interpretation. Conclusion Young soldiers presented with symptoms not in the International Classification of Disorders and older soldiers who feared being medically downgraded, sought help outside the Army Medical Services. Women found it easier to seek support, but many were inappropriately labelled as depressed. Implications include a need to address the poor understanding of military stressors; their relationships to depressive symptoms and raise higher awareness of gender imbalances with regard to access and treatment. The results have international implications for other Armed forces, and those employed in Young Men's Mental Health. The results are presented as a simple predictive model and aide memoire that can be utilised as an educational and clinical guideline. There is scope to adapt this model to international civilian healthcare practiceCitation
Finnegan, A., Finnegan, S., Thomas, M., Deahl, M., Simpson, R., & Ashford, R. (2014). The presentation of depression in the British Army. Nurse Education Today, 34(1), 83-91.Publisher
ElsevierJournal
Nurse Education TodayAdditional Links
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0260691713000828Type
ArticleLanguage
enISSN
0260-6917EISSN
1532-2793ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1016/j.nedt.2013.02.020
Scopus Count
Collections
The following license files are associated with this item:
- Creative Commons
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/