VA therapist studies sexual trauma treatment
Marcia Hall has been helping women overcome violent encounters for more than three decades. Since 1996, she has helped hundreds of women veterans recover from traumatic experiences while serving in the military. Twelve years ago, Hall, a trauma therapist, was asked to start the Women�s Trauma Recovery Program at the Veterans Affairs Roseburg Healthcare System. Her experience with trauma survivors, her interest in the VA system and her parents both being veterans of World War II, encouraged Hall to accept the position.A few years earlier, in 1992, Congress had mandated that the Veterans Health Administration provide military sexual trauma services to women. Since the implementation of such programs across the nation, no research had been conducted that looked at the practicing environment and how it affected the care provided to veterans, Hall said.So, Hall conducted the research and wrote an article outlining her findings, which was recently published in the American Psychological Association�s journal �Psychological Services� � a collection of peer-review articles. The study was also Hall�s thesis project to complete her Ph.D. Ann Sedlacek and Jo Ann Berenbach, both mental health nurse practitioners at the VA hospital, helped Hall with the study, which was conducted outside the parameters of the hospital.�We�re the first health care system in the world to have policy implemented for gender-based issues,� Hall said. �The VA is very progressive with policy, but I wanted to look at how it is implemented.� Hall and her team started developing questions for two surveys in 1999. Providers at military sexual trauma centers in the Northwest were given two anonymous surveys that they used to evaluate their work environment and how it affected the quality of services.
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Prevalence of military sexual traumaTrauma therapist Marcia Hall has worked with hundreds of veterans who suffered from sexual trauma while on active duty.Hall started a center at the Veterans Affairs system in Roseburg that treats women, who while serving their country, became victims.�These women are in Iraq and Afghanistan, in a war zone and trying to stay alive and have to depend on each other,� Hall said. �If one, or more than one, of them turn their back on you and assault you in the most damaging way, you have a dual-fight for survival.�Military sexual trauma is defined as physical or sexual assault, stalking or harassment that occurs while on active duty. Prevalence estimates of such trauma are reported at as high as 78 percent in female active duty personnel and 60 percent in reserve troops, according to a report by Hall. But within the VA system as a whole, the number of women veterans seeking the services constitute an extreme minority � only 7 percent � of all veterans.Women who do seek services from the VA can receive counseling and therapy to regain control and heal from their traumatic experience. Military sexual assault has chronic and acute effects on the women who endure it, Hall said. �The core of trauma is powerlessness,� Hall said. �Unless we can help them regain power and self worth, they will continue to access the systems.�
Military sexual trauma is described as physical or sexual assault, stalking or harassment that occurs while on active duty. Providers for trauma victims have dual obligations in their jobs, Hall said. They have an obligation to serve their patients and are also obligated to the organization they belong too, in this case the Veterans Health Administration. Because of that, Hall looked at how ones obligation to an organization impacted his or her obligation to patients.After years of preparing and conducting the surveys, Hall found that the results vary. �There is a huge difference from facility to facility,� Hall said. �What happens here is very different from what happens elsewhere.�While the outcomes varied, a consistent profile did emerge. The surveys looked at four variables at the individual level � ethical conflicts, the feeling of burnout, vicarious trauma and isolation � and at five variables at the organizational level � workload, scheduling, organizational culture, leadership and military sexual trauma resources.The study results showed that providers who worked in a facility where they felt a high level of support from their organization, experienced lower levels of burnout, ethical conflicts, vicarious trauma and isolation. And those providers who perceived lower levels of support from the organizations they work for, more frequently experienced the individual variables surveyed.For confidentiality purposes, details on how each center faired in the study are not available. However, Sedlacek and Hall agreed that the Roseburg center is constantly self-assessing and looking for ways to meet its goal of constantly improving services. At the national level, Hall said changes have not occurred because the findings of the study were just released in December.However, Hall said she has received positive feedback from national and regional peers in the psychology field, and she would like to see the study conducted on a broader scale to see if the results in the Northwest are more widespread and applicable across the country.� You can reach reporter Marissa Harshman at 957-4202 or by e-mail at mharshman@newsreview.info.
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