stigma and barriers to care - Uniformed Services University of the ...

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Stigma and Barriers to Care — Caring for Those Exposed to War, Disaster and Terrorism
Our first goal is better
understanding and
then to translate that
understanding into
action in the areas of
dealing with stigma and
barriers to care for our
three populations: those
exposed to war, disaster,
and terrorism. We have
representatives from all
of those areas of study.
from them. We also have experts from a variety of other areas. Together we are going
to think across disciplines to try to better understand this topic.
COL Hoge graciously allowed me to analyze his dataset to develop some new
skills under the expert supervision of Dr. Creel. Dr. Bob Ursano has been an absolutely
great mentor and a real gentleman, leading me through a mid‐career learning
experience. I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for all that he has
done.
DR. URSANO: Thank you, Mark. I would like to thank all of you for being here.
We brought together a diverse group of leaders in their fields who may or may not
know each other’s work and that is why you are each here. If you are only talking to
people that you already know we are not accomplishing one of our goals. We want
you to leave here with at least two new names of people who will be helpful and of
interest to you in pursuing these topics. To help with this, in your packets we have
provided a list of the e-mail addresses and affiliations of all attendees.
Our primary work today is a series of presentations and thinking together. Our
work tomorrow is to formulate today’s discussion into a set of recommendations,
so you should capture ideas generated today that you want to bring up tomorrow.
Specifically, the goal tomorrow will be to take what we have learned and translate it
into a series of recommendations in the areas of education, training, leadership, and
research. Our first goal is better understanding and then to translate that understanding
into action in the areas of dealing with stigma and barriers to care for our three
populations: those exposed to war, disaster, and terrorism. We have representatives
from all of those areas of study.
It is a great pleasure to have as our first speaker Ron Kessler. Ron is not only one
of the brightest people I have ever met, he is also one of the most gracious. As you all
know Dr. Kessler is a professor at Harvard. He has done most of the epidemiologic
studies that we all cite in our papers, including the National Comorbidity Study, the
National Comorbidity Study-Replication, and the related Adolescent Study. He is
the head of the ongoing World Health Organization (WHO) studies. He is also the
driving force in the Army STARRS (Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers)
study, which is our ongoing study of suicide within the Army looking at
risk factors and resilience. He is gracious and brilliant, and he is here to talk with
us today as well as to join the discussion. Welcome, Ron.