Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: The James A.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: The James a. Haley Veterans' Hospital's Solution to PSTD The James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital (JAHVH) is dedicated to serving the nations veterans. It was activated in 1972 and provides patient care services, and also serves as a teaching hospital. According to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, VA (2014), JAHVH consists of five Veteran Health Administration (VHA) facilities located in Brooksville, Zephyrhills, New Port Richey, Lakeland and Tampa.

Their primary mission is to provide America's military veterans with proper medical care and services, in line with their commitment to meet their changing surgical, medical, and quality of life needs (VA, 2014). In particular, the Veterans' Hospital facilitates programs that help veterans deal with post traumatic stress disorder (PSTD). This is a disorder that is common among military veterans, which develops due to terrifying ordeals involving actual or the threat of physical harm (National Institute of Health, 2009).

While most individuals experience normal stress related reactions to traumatic events such as terrorism attacks, combat exposure, accidents, or physical assault, if the reactions fail to go away after a period of three months, and start to cause disruptions in the life of the individual, then it is a clear case of PSTD. To further understand how the operations of the Veterans Hospital improve the lives of American Patriots, this text evaluates how the VA's organizational goals contribute to the effective management of PSTD by its culturally diverse patients.

Multiple cultures served by the VA The VA serves a diverse Veteran population. To ensure continuous high quality service and care to veterans, the VA has cultivated an inclusive work environment and a diverse workforce that will be able to cater for the needs of its diverse patients (VA, 2014). People from ethnic and racial minorities have often received lower quality healthcare in America. However, the VA delivers culturally competent health care by interacting successfully with patients from various cultural groups. Apart from Americans, the VA serves Asians, Indians, and Africans.

Majority of the patients are also Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, and African-Americans. The impact of culture on the interpretation of symptoms After a traumatic event, the behavior and emotions of an individual change significantly. One common symptom includes fear or anxiety, where the patient may feel jumpy, tense, agitated, and alert (VA, 2014). Sadness and depression often accompanies the loss of a loved one, and the patient may become introverted, have crying spells, or lose interest in activities they once found fun.

Others feel guilt and shame because they feel they could have done more to prevent the trauma. Another common symptom is anger and irritability that occurs if the patient feels that they were treated unfairly - they may lose patience easily, become hot tempered, and overreact to small misunderstandings. NIH (2009) also claims that behavioral changes may accompany a traumatic disorder, where the patient turns to drugs, neglects their health, and avoids social functions.

According to Hinton and Fernandez (2010), culture includes the totality of socially transmitted learned behaviors and meanings, which have a profound effect on the way individuals express distress, share emotions, and accept treatment. For instance, events conducive to PSTD may vary by culture. For example, Indians believe that suffering during a disaster may lead to healing, which decreases the stress associated with events such as earthquakes of floods.

On the other hand, female Caucasians, who are more religious, may have show more severe symptoms after a traumatic experience, because they see it as a punishment from God that came about due their wrongful behavior (Hilton and Fernandez, 2010). The interpretation of symptoms also varies across cultures (NIH, 2009). For instance, after a traumatic episode, Japanese-Americans, and males in general, may avoid social contact with their family because their culture does not allow them to view themselves as victims. Traumatic reactions will, therefore, go undetected.

Mexicans often experience severe headaches, anxiety, stomach aches, and losses of appetite after an accident, which they interpret as sisto, the action of the soul leaving the body. A study on Hawaiian Vietnamese veterans also established that they turn to rituals to deal with stress from combat exposure, while an African-American Gulf War Veteran believed in therapy as the only way to forgive himself for actions carried out in the gulf war (Hilton and Fernandez, 2010).

Recommendations of services for the VA The VA has three major goals for 2014: to improve access by veterans to benefits and services, to give every veteran a home, and to eliminate disability backlog (VA, 2014). To achieve this, the hospitals have to encourage all veterans to seek treatment for post traumatic disorder. They should aim to empower the veterans as it is the only way to improve their wellness and economic security.

It is also imperative for Veteran hospitals to acknowledge diverse cultural identities and to incorporate cultural differences in the assessment and treatment of PSTD. Medical practitioners should be keen to identify different patients' perceptions of stress and trauma in order to establish the most effective methods of treatment. Conclusion The success of the VA is defined by the wellness of the veterans.