title: Help a buddy take a knee: creating persuasive messages for military service members to encourage others to seek mental health help.
abstract: Helping service members returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who need mental health help is an important problem for the United States military. Tanielian and Jaycox (2008) estimated that approximately 14%, or 300,000, of the service members returning from the wars have posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), yet just over half of those needing psychological help seek it despite the availability of effective treatments. This article reports the focus group responses of military personnel about message factors associated with persuading individuals to encourage others to seek mental health help. The results have theoretical and practical implications for future message design for promoting increased usage of mental health services among members of this population. Responses are presented in terms of the communication variables of source, message, channel, and receiver factors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication, 572 Communication Arts & Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. clarkhit@msu.edu
authors.forename: Rose
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Clark-Hitt
authors.forename: Sandi W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Jordan S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Broderick
mesh_terms: D055826:Afghan Campaign 2001-; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D058015:Health Communication / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D054542:Iraq War, 2003-2011; D008297:Male; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000523:psychology*; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000628:therapy*; D014481:United States