University News Last updated 05 August 2011
An individual soldier’s personality is more likely to affect their ability to cope with life in the army, not the actual pressures of armed service.
That’s the findings of research carried out by Lt. Col. Alan Finnegan, PhD from Birmingham City University’s Faculty of Health. His research also confirmed that the perceived stigma surrounding mental health issues is still a determining factor on whether individuals seek medical intervention.
Dr Finnegan’s study, which was published in the Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps and the British Nursing Journal aimed to examine and evaluate Army Mental Health Services (AMHS) clinicians’ views regarding the predisposing factors that resulted in British Army personnel being diagnosed with depression.
First-hand interviews with serving personnel revealed that it is an individual soldier’s personality that is more likely to affect their ability to cope with life in the army, not the actual pressures of serving in the army. Soldiers’ personal support networks were also revealed as being crucial to maintaining positive mental health. Whilst many soldiers have no problem coping with the pressures of serving in the army, eg serving in hostile environments such as Afghanistan and being in life or death situations, they can’t cope with the pressure of being in a relationship that is breaking down; some soldiers even leave the army to try to save a failing relationship.
The research also revealed that the main group that seeks mental health help are young disillusioned soldiers who want to leave the army. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was confirmed that women find it easier to ask for help than their male counterparts and Officers worry about reporting mental health problems in case it adversely affects their career.
Dr. Finnegan was appointed as the first Nurse Consultant within the British Army, and was employed as the Defence Specialist Nursing Advisor in Mental Health. He said: “During this period, I was directed to produce a strategy for monitoring military mental health hospital admissions, and it quickly became clear that there was very rich research material presenting in an area that was short of quality epidemiological findings, including that depression was a far more prevalent mental health diagnosis than conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder in reducing the fighting capability of the British Armed Forces.
“As a result, I contacted Professor Robert Ashford, the Director of Postgraduate Research Degrees at Birmingham City University’s Faculty of Health to discuss the developing themes and the potential for a robust and constructive research study – and the PhD study followed.”
Birmingham City University is backing a national campaign celebrating the benefit of higher education. Universities Week is taking place from June 13th to 19th and will highlight how universities benefit everyone, whether or not they have gone to university themselves.