Promoting Military Cultural Competence among Civilian Care Providers: Learning through Program Development

Randall Nedegaard,Jana Zwilling

doi:10.3390/socsci6010013

Abstract

Military veterans and their families belong to a unique subculture. Several studies have identified the need for helping professionals to attain military cultural competence in order to practice more effectively. In order to address this need, a Midwestern state created a military culture certificate program (MCCP). The process of developing this program is described. Eighty-two participants of the MCCP completed a pretest survey assessing their knowledge, awareness, and self-confidence in working with this population. The majority of the participants had experience working with this population already, and their survey scores indicated moderate knowledge and moderate to high levels of overall self-efficacy. Pre-test scores indicated ten areas (six in knowledge and four in self-efficacy) that may deserve increased focus for programs and trainings on military culture. While the MCCP appeared to be generally effective, findings suggest that convenient adjunctive methods of obtaining information to enhance military cultural competence would also be helpful.

Highlights

Several studies have been conducted to determine the psychological impact of recent military conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq
Service members might agree that civilian providers are competent professionally, but many of these providers lack an understanding of service member’s military experiences, challenges, and language
Kilpatrick and colleagues [9] had similar findings in their survey of mental health and primary care professionals. They found that most (84%) civilian providers in their survey had no direct military experience and had not received training or experience that could have informed them about military culture

Summary

Introduction

Service members might agree that civilian providers are competent professionally, but many of these providers lack an understanding of service member’s military experiences, challenges, and language This knowledge deficit is often a significant reason why military patients discontinue treatment with community-based providers after a single visit [7]. Tanielian and colleagues [8] outlined concerns about community-based providers in their recent national survey of mental health providers They discovered that few community-based providers had an adequate level of military cultural competency and/or used evidence-based approaches to treat problems commonly seen among veterans. They found that just 13% of the mental health providers surveyed met the study’s readiness criteria for both cultural competency and delivering evidence-based care. Most providers appear to ignore veteran’s status when working

Methods

Results

Conclusion