Mark C. Russell, Core Faculty in our PsyD program and Establishing Director of our Institute of War Stress Injuries, Recovery, and Social Justice was recently published in The Huffington Post! His article, The Darker Side of American Military Mental Health Care is part of his “sincere effort to end a tragic generational cycle of largely self-inflicted wartime mental health crises since the First World War (WWI).”
Russell served in the American military for 26 years, as a Marine Sergeant, a Navy Commander, and as a military psychologist deployed in support of the Iraq invasion in 2003, and he says this time “opened my eyes to the painful reality that our country was grossly negligent in its preparation to meet even basic [veterans’ mental health] needs.”
Upon retiring from the military, Russell founded Antioch University Seattle’s Institute of War Stress Injury, Recovery, and Social Justice, participated in documentaries such as Thank You For Your Service! and the upcoming Stranger At Home, and published a great deal of research on the subject of military mental health. Most recently, Russell and co-author Charles R. Figley, published a three-part series of scholarly articles in the March 2017 (available online in February 2-17) issue of Psychological Injury and Law, asking if the military’s frontline psychiatry/combat and operational stress control doctrine and programs help or harm veterans and their families.
In this Huffington Post piece, Russell also provides readers with an overview of the US government’s approaches to military mental health over the years, including critiques of the ways that policy has harmed, rather than helped, people who serve in the US military.
Read The Darker Side of American Military Mental Health Care at The Huffington Post.
