Group treatment for race-related stresses among minority Vietnam veterans.
Treatment for symptoms arising from exposure to adverse race-related events is critical to culturally competent healthcare delivery to ethnic minorities, particularly in light of recent findings demonstrating significant relationships between adverse race-related events and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and general psychiatric distress. This article offers a developmental model consisting of stages by which psychological symptoms develop in response to race-related stressors in the military. This article also describes a model of group treatment for ethnic minority veterans related to psychological symptoms arising from exposure to race-related stressors. Both models were used in a race-related support group for Pacific Islander Vietnam veterans diagnosed with PTSD. A combined approach of group intervention, psychosocial education, identity reframing, cognitive differentiation, and cognitive restructuring, which included 'depersonalizing discrimination' and rejection of faulty beliefs, appear to offer an effective approach to treating psychological sequelae arising from adverse race-related events. This article offers an intervention model that is linked to a developmental model of race-related stressors for Asian American Pacific Islander minority personnel in the military.
Loo
Chalsa M
CM
Department of Veterans Affairs, HI 96813, USA. chalsa@earthlink.net
Ueda
Salvador S
SS
Morton
Robert K
RK
D000339:Affect; D003469:Culture; D006801:Humans; D011615:Psychotherapy, Group / Q000379:methods*; D012649:Self Concept; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012933:Social Identification; D012944:Social Support; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D014481:United States; D014728:Veterans / Q000523:psychology*; D014744:Vietnam / Q000208:ethnology