UC research team investigating trauma
university-of-canterbury
Mon Mar 25 2013 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
UC research team investigating trauma
Monday, 25 March 2013, 9:03 am
Press Release: University of Canterbury
UC research team investigating trauma following earthquakes and war
March 25, 2013
How trauma is understood by the public and medical community shapes who seeks help and when, and the kinds of treatment that are available to them.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric diagnosis for a cluster of symptoms following traumatic experience. These symptoms include nightmares, re-experiencing the event and emotional numbness.
Two University of Canterbury researchers Mason Head and his media and communication supervisor Dr Sue Tait are researching PTSD which became a psychiatric diagnosis following the Vietnam War.
``In order to understand trauma and its treatment following the Christchurch earthquakes and the impact of trauma on our own servicemen and women, journalists and first responders we need to understand how agendas are set internationally,’’ Dr Tait said.
``As of July 2012, of 2.4 million combatants in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Department of Veterans Affairs had formally diagnosed over 207, 000 veterans with PTSD.
``Last year the New York Times reported that more active duty soldiers were committing suicide than dying in combat and more veterans were committing suicide every year than had been killed in the 10 years of combat since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began. A veteran kills himself or herself every 80 minutes.
``Our research follows two threads and their connections. The first is the problems with the way PTSD is defined, treated and managed within psychiatry. The issues we are exploring here include the way the diagnostic criteria contribute to stigma, which can inform a reluctance to seek help. This stems from the contradiction that experiences that are acknowledged to be traumatic -unmanageable, incomprehensible, psychic wounds – are, at the same time, considered disordered if they depart from expectable and culturally sanctioned responses.
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``The second thread is the way the public understands what trauma and PTSD are through media representations. While we locate representations of PTSD within the context of broader representations of trauma, our focus is the representation of traumatic stress in the context of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
``This includes analysis of press coverage, documentary, feature film and television, including the critically acclaimed Homeland, and videos made by combatants and veterans and posted to YouTube,’’ Dr Tait said.
Analysing the narratives and images used to construct PTSD for audiences, and the ways these are discussed in reviews and viewer responses, will enable the UC research team to assess the ways trauma is made public and political.
Many of these representations make powerful critiques of veteran care, and question the legitimacy of the demands the state makes on its soldiers. How dissent is expressed and contained within the media has significant implications for future support for the way conflicts are conducted.
``We are also looking for evidence of media representations of PTSD impacting government policies regarding the care of combatants and veterans and, as we keep researching, we are looking for funding to help us in our quest for the answers,’’ Dr Tait said.
ends
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