"Mental Health and Women in the Military: Promoting Social Acceptance and Inclusion."

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTHAND HUMAN SERVICES

Substance Abuse and Mental Health

Services Administration

Center for Mental Health Services
11420 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 208521-800-540-0320 promoteacceptance@samhsa.hhs.gov

Mental Health & Women in the Military: Promoting Social Acceptance and Inclusion
SAMHSA's Resource Center to Promote Acceptance, Dignity and Social Inclusion Associated with Mental Health (ADS Center) invites you to register now for a free teleconference training titled, "Mental Health & Women in the Military: Promoting Social Acceptance and Inclusion."
Date: Wednesday, August 6, 2008 Time: 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM (Eastern Time)

To register for this training teleconference, please click here for our registration page.
Please pass this invitation along to interested friends and colleagues. Please note: Registration for this teleconference will close at 5:00 p.m., Eastern Time, on Monday, August 4, 2008.
We will email the telephone number for the training teleconference to all registered participants on Tuesday, August 5, 2008.

Training Summary
Among the United States armed forces, women currently represent 15 percent of the active duty force, 20 percent of new military recruits and 17 percent of National Guard and Reserve forces.

1 Women account for 1.7 million of the 24.4 million veterans nationwide-a number that is projected to nearly double by the year 2010.

2 Women face a unique set of challenges associated with their military service. For example, they may be at higher risk for developing mental illnesses than their male counterparts. Studies indicate that women are twice as likely as men to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

3 Women typically experience more PTSD symptoms than men and endure a longer course of illness, often accompanied by physical problems. Female veterans also were twice as likely as male veterans to have had serious psychological distress in the past year (14.5 vs. 6.5 percent).

4 Fear and shame often keep women in the military from reporting acts of trauma and seeking mental health care to help them recover. Service members frequently cite fear of personal embarrassment, fear of disappointing comrades, fear of losing the opportunity for career advancement, and fear of dishonorable discharge as motivations to hide the symptoms of mental illness from colleagues, friends, and family. Women sometimes experience trauma including sexual trauma—while in military service.

1,2 Turner, Carole L. The Veterans Administration and the Women Veterans Health Program: Caring for a New Generation of Veterans, last accessed 4/11/08.
3 National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. How common is PTSD?, last accessed 4/11/08.
4 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Applied Studies. (November 1, 2007). The NSDUH Report: Serious Psychological Distress and Substance Use Disorder among Veterans. Rockville, MD, last accessed 4/11/08.

This training will:
Explore research on women in the military, mental health, and feelings of fear and shame that keep women from seeking care
Provide an overview of strategies that may help promote acceptance and understanding and reduce negative attitudes in the military related to women, mental health and trauma issues.

Send in Your Questions
We invite you to send in your questions related to Promoting Social Acceptance and Inclusion of Women in the Military in advance of the teleconference. Speakers will answer as many questions as possible during the teleconference. Please send your questions by e-mail to promoteacceptance@samhsa.hhs.gov.

Please note that sending a question does not guarantee its inclusion in the teleconference. We will provide the speakers' contact information so that you may pursue your answer after the call. If you provide your name and organization at the time you ask your question, we may use it during the call. Anonymous questions also can be submitted.

Presenters
A. Kathryn Power, M.Ed.A. Kathryn Power, M.Ed. is Director of the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), an operating division of the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). CMHS provides national leadership in mental health promotion, mental illness prevention, and the development and dissemination of effective mental health services. Director Power leads a staff of 126 professionals in facilitating the transformation of our nation's mental health care system into one that is recovery-oriented and consumer-centered.
Director Power served on the Department of Defense Task Force on Mental Health, chartered by Congress in June 2006. Section 723 of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2006 directed the Secretary of Defense to examine matters relating to mental health and the Armed Forces and produce "a report containing an assessment of, and recommendations for improving, the efficacy of mental health services provided to members of the Armed Forces by the Department of Defense." The Task Force gathered information from many sources through five primary operations, and submitted the completed report to Congress on June 14, 2007.
Ms. Power recently retired from her position as a Captain in the U.S. Navy Reserve.

Colonel Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, MD, MPHColonel Ritchie is the Director of the Proponency of Behavioral Health at the Office of the US Army Surgeon General. She trained at Harvard, George Washington, Walter Reed, and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Her assignments and other missions have taken her to Korea, Somalia, Iraq, and Vietnam. An internationally recognized expert, she brings a unique public health approach to the management of disaster and combat mental health issues. She has published numerous articles on forensic, disaster, and military operational psychiatry. In 2005, Colonel Ritchie received the William Porter and Bruno Lima awards. Her textbook, "Mental Health Interventions for Mass Violence and Disaster" was recently published by Guilford Press. Military Medicine published her supplement on Humanitarian Assistance and Health Diplomacy: Military-Civilian Partnership in the 2004 Tsunami Aftermath. She is currently the senior editor on a forthcoming text on Combat and Operational Mental Health.

Training Sponsor
This teleconference is sponsored by SAMHSA's Resource Center to Promote Acceptance, Dignity and Social Inclusion Associated with Mental Health (ADS Center), a project of the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The session is free to all participants.

Subscribe to receive this update by visiting the ADS Center Web Site or by calling an ADS Center representative at 800-540-0320.

SAMHSA Resource Center to Promote Acceptance, Dignity and Social Inclusion Associated with Mental Health http://promoteacceptance.samhsa.gov/