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...

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…