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Risk and Resilience Factors in Combat Military Health Care Providers

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War and Family Life

Abstract

As an occupational group, military health care providers have received little attention, even though their risk for psychosocial sequelae such as psychological distress, alcohol misuse, and family stress, from deployment has been demonstrated. Concern has been raised about risk and resiliency within occupational groups like the military health care providers, where gender has been identified as a variable that can impact vulnerability to adverse effects of trauma, as well as how these reactions are managed. There is reason to worry about the long-term functional outcomes of war-exposed health care providers, especially since many of them are single African American females, possibly with dependent children. The chapter will progress through a brief overview of what is known about (or unknown) about military health care providers, from more general information about the occupational group to what is known about single female military health care providers.

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Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the Department of Defense, or the United States government.

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Correspondence to Susanne W. Gibbons Ph.D. .

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Gibbons, S.W., Hickling, E.J. (2016). Risk and Resilience Factors in Combat Military Health Care Providers. In: MacDermid Wadsworth, S., Riggs, D. (eds) War and Family Life. Risk and Resilience in Military and Veteran Families. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21488-7_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21488-7_10

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