While the term moral injury (MI) was originally envisioned to address the gap between PTSD and what Vietnam veterans were experiencing after returning from the war, our understanding of the phenomenon has grown (Shay, 2014). Due to recent scholarly work in the fields of servicewomen, healthcare, social work, and many others, we now know that …
Tag Archives: moral injury
A Very Important Book
In the spring of 2019, I was conducting some phone interviews as part of a ground-breaking research project. The study focused on the moral injurious experiences of women veterans, and the data was very disturbing. As someone who has worked in the U.S. military chaplain corps for many years, I realized that many chaplains did …
Why We Need a Conference for Women Veterans and Clergy Men
As a man myself, and someone who served in the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps for 18 years, I can honestly say that I had no idea how difficult it was to serve as a woman in the military. Four years ago I began to get a clue and it was very disturbing. In 20I6, I …
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For Veteran Women, Military Sexual Trauma and Moral Injury are not the Same
Military sexual trauma (MST) comprises a range of harmful experiences, including rape, sexual coercion, attempts at forcible sexual contact, and sexual harassment (Conrad et al., 2014). Estimates vary across studies and the definitions that the Veterans Administration (VA) has used over the years have changed, as well as the Department of Defense’s reporting requirements. Conservative …
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Old Memories, Fresh Wounds
For the last several months, I have been working with a partner to conduct a moral injury study for women veterans. (We are still looking for participants. If you are a female veteran and experienced something while serving that caused inner conflict or went against your moral values, consider signing up: https://chaplainconsultants.com/projects/). Although military sexual …