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Care of Military Service Members, Veterans, and Their Families delivers as the title promises. The editors, Stephen Cozza, Matthew Goldenberg, and Robert Ursano have vast experience treating these individuals, and each has devoted his life's work to their treatment. Collectively, these authors have been at the forefront of military psychiatry since the Vietnam War, and their knowledge has shaped much of modem, American military psychiatry. They recruited an impressive array of authors who themselves are leaders of modern thought in the military in all branches of the service. With such a broad background, the authors were able to clearly explain differences between the various branches of the service to the reader. While not long, this book clearly covers most topics of interest to those treating patients associated with the military.
The volume begins with an overview of the U.S. military. The authors discuss the differences between the various services and their prevailing climates. For those not familiar with military service, they describe various methods of enlistment and commissioning as well as a brief overview of the rank structure. They recognize that when one member of a family serves in the military, the entire family is affected. After this overview, the authors discuss characteristics including frequent moves, family separations, and operational stress that make military families unique. This is followed by a chapter describing the resources available to active duty families. Unfortunately, many of these resources are no longer available when a service member leaves the military or is stationed in a location geographically isolated from military installations.
In the next section, the authors focus on several topics of utmost importance to the health of the service member. Several times throughout this book, the authors note that both posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) are the signature injuries of the conflicts in Iraq