title: Family Impact of Military Mental Health Stigma: A Narrative Ethical Analysis.
abstract: Our past lessons from war trauma have taught us that mental health-care stigma and other issues surrounding mental health-seeking behaviors can negatively impact the healing trajectory and long-term function for service members and their families. It can take years to decades before a service member seeks professional help for psychological distress, if he or she seeks it at all. Unfortunately, signs of personal and family problems can be subtle, and consequences, such as suicide, tragic. In this chapter, we consider the story one military health-care provider submitted in response to a study solicitation that read: Please provide your personal story telling me about any psychological distress you may have experienced after returning from deployment and your personal challenges accessing care and/or remaining in treatment. This story is analyzed to explore the moral implications of his experience for the military and for other service members. The main points to be highlighted are that altruism can leave altruists more vulnerable, military mental health stigma may exacerbate this risk, and military families may profoundly be affected.
authors.forename: Susanne W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Gibbons
authors.forename: Edmund Randy
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Howe
mesh_terms: D000533:Altruism; D026689:Ethical Analysis; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D057545:Social Stigma