Veterans need more support to address PTSD and mental health challenges. Alumni from Adtalem are dedicating their doctoral research to it.
Alexander Buelna, PhD ’16, believes there is a deep connection among veterans.
The prevalence of mental health disorders among veterans is striking. Last year, mental health disorders were the top reason for hospitalization among active-duty U.S. military personnel, accounting for 31% of all hospitalizations.
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remains a considerable issue for service members and veterans, affecting about 15% of U.S. service members returning from Afghanistan and Iraq experience PTSD or depression annually.
“When a veteran sees that I’ve been through the same struggles, they feel understood,” Dr. Buelna says. “That understanding is essential, especially in mental health. Veterans need to see that they’re talking to someone who really gets it.”
Addressing Stigmas Associated With PTSD
Dr. Buelna’s journey began in 1985 when he enlisted in the U.S. Army, motivated by a sense of duty and a desire to serve both his country and fellow service members. Over the course of his military service, Dr. Buelna undertook various complex and demanding assignments. He served as a Protective Service officer for high-ranking officials, including various Secretaries of Defense and various Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which also included General Colin Powell. After the September 11 attacks, Dr. Buelna joined the Federal Air Marshal Service, helping to rapidly scale the organization to meet the country’s new security demands. He was later assigned to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, where he provided protective services amidst the intense urban conflict and logistical challenges in Baghdad.
Dr. Buelna’s transition from military to civilian life came in 2004, upon which he was awarded the Bronze Star. He was medically retired as Chief Warrant Officer Four in 2010 due to the cumulative toll of physical injuries and untreated PTSD.
Rather than retreat from public service, Dr. Buelna used this turning point to advocate for veterans’ mental health, driven by his own struggles to access timely and effective care. He earned his master’s degree in public safety. When he enrolled at Walden University for his PhD in Public Health, he dedicated his dissertation—Veterans’ Perceptions of Military Stigma and the Shame Associated with Combat-Related Posttraumatic Stress—to exploring veterans’ perceptions of various aspects of military stigma, including post-deployment psychological screening, the diagnosis of PTSD, and factors associated with reluctance to seek medical assistance.
Removing Stigma from PTSD
“PTSD needs to be seen as a war injury—just like a physical wound,” Dr. Buelna says. “The term ‘disorder’ adds stigma, making it seem like there’s something wrong with you, like it’s a flaw or weakness. But PTSD is a direct result of service. If it were classified that way, veterans might feel less burdened by stigma, and society could understand it better. We’re not talking about a weakness, but an injury, and it should be treated with the same respect and seriousness as any other service-related injury.”
Today, as a senior leader within the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, Dr. Buelna oversees regulatory enforcement and compliance for long-term care facilities. His role enables him to influence health policy and ensure the safety and well-being of vulnerable populations, including veterans.
He also mentors fellow veterans navigating higher education and advocates for policy reforms like the reclassification of PTSD as a war injury, and fostering systemic changes which he believes would help dismantle stigma and facilitate greater access to care.
“We need to create an environment where soldiers feel safe discussing mental health, where seeking help is routine. When I was leaving the military, the evaluations they gave us asked if we felt trauma or were struggling mentally, but no one wanted to answer honestly because if you said yes, it often meant being held from returning home or facing stigma. It’s a flawed system because the way the military handles mental health screens discourages honesty. They need a better approach that doesn’t make you feel like a problem just for needing help.”
Understanding Trauma and Crisis Intervention
Braxton Morrison, PhD ’23, MPhil ’23, MSEM ’19, grew up in Vinton, Iowa and knew from a young age that he wanted to work in emergency services. This early calling led him to take an EMT course in high school, although he initially struggled with the certification. Seeking another route where he could be of service, Dr. Morrison enlisted in the U.S. Army and served three years, including a combat tour in Afghanistan as a combat engineer conducting route clearance missions—detecting and clearing explosives from roadways—for the 101st Airborne Division during their missions.
After his military service, he returned home to work as an EMT and completed a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. Though he initially felt done with college, he was inspired to continue due to the education benefits available to veterans.
Dr. Morrison’s journey into civilian life has taken him through various emergency services roles—police officer, paramedic, and death investigator—that continued to expose him to trauma that began to cumulatively build from his time in the military.
Over time, he realized that suppressing his PTSD was affecting his life, but he refrained from seeking help due to the lingering stigma within his professional circles.
Motivated by a desire to understand trauma and crisis intervention, Dr. Morrison returned to school at Walden University, earning two master’s degrees in emergency management and philosophy and eventually earning a PhD in Human Services with a specialization in Disaster, Crisis, and Intervention. He explored the Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) model in his dissertation—“The Role of Stigma in Predicting Attendance at Critical Incident Stress Debriefings” (CISDs).
CISDs are one form of crisis intervention designed initially for emergency services personnel to mitigate and normalize acute posttraumatic reactions while building unit cohesion. Despite its availability, emergency services personnel have been found to have increasing numbers of behavioral health conditions and suicidality due to the traumatic stress they endure in the line of duty, according to Dr. Morrison’s research.
“Seeking help is okay, and it doesn’t have to be anyone else’s business. Nobody gets to tell you how you should feel, especially after experiencing a traumatic event. Trauma is different for everyone. While we have diagnostic criteria, symptoms vary from person to person, and no one will fully understand your unique perception of a traumatic experience. Your perception matters.”
Dr. Morrison’s academic and advocacy work centers around the idea that each person’s perception of trauma is unique, and so their healing process should be personalized as well. He encourages veterans and emergency services personnel to seek help, reminding them that mental health support is as valid and necessary as any physical treatment. He underscores the importance of vulnerability in breaking down mental health stigma and stresses that genuine understanding and change will only come when people openly discuss their mental health challenges and accept them as part of the human experience.
Healing Invisible Wounds
For Dr. Morrison, a lot of work has been put into normalizing being wounded from combat without having a physical injury. He registered his dog as a service animal and is currently working with an organization to train and donate his next service animal to a veteran in need.
“There are so many resources out there to help people with trauma and mental health challenges,” he says. “A lot of places have dedicated support systems to veterans and emergency services personnel.”
One such organization is American Humane’s Pups4Patriots program, which trains dogs to help fill the demand for highly trained service dogs to support veterans. American Humane provides veterans who struggle with PTSD and traumatic brain injury with lifesaving service dogs at no cost to the veteran and their family.
American Humane has been an Adtalem Global Education Foundation partner since 2017. Earlier this year, foundation support helped reunite three retired military working dogs with their former U.S. Marine Corps handlers.
“This program provided a deeply meaningful experience to me,” one of the veterans shared. “You have provided me, and undoubtedly many other veterans, a chance to feel peace, calm, and support in my life. A sincere thank you to all the donors who support the Pups4Patriots program. My life is forever changed.”
For more information, email the Adtalem Global Communications Team: adtalemmedia@adtalem.com.
