Understanding Family Values in Military Psychological Health Services Delivery

摘要

Currently, families of service members diagnosed with psychological health disorders showed markedly elevated levels of problems in martial and family adjustment, parenting skills, and violent behavior compared with families of service members without psychological health disorders. Despite the fact that they possess legitimate and urgent stakeholder attributes due to their wartime sacrifices and need for timely care, respectively, they have very little power within the current system. Although the Military Health System (MHS) leadership recognizes psychological health as a top priority for the enterprise, the current system does not provide the continuum of care to treat service members and their families. From the perspective of understanding psychological health services, we evaluated the ability of MHS to connect their stakeholders to their current value proposition, recognize any misalignments, and propose necessary corrective action. This emphasis on value allowed us to identify several gaps in the continuum of care, including the lack of a systemic support network (i.e. availability of social workers, mental health professionals, educators, and family support to provide care utilizing a holistic approach), family member sentiment of feeling "lost" in the system, and family members facing significant barriers to receiving care.