After two tours of duty in Afghanistan, Jeanette, a 26-year-old Haitian American female veteran, honorably discharged as a captain, returns home with clinical manifestations of posttraumatic stress (anxiety, difficulty concentrating, outbursts of anger, relationship difficulties, excessive alcohol use, preference for being alone), and she threatens to commit suicide. Jeanette’s mother insists that someone has used voodoo on her daughter and has a voodoo priestess (mambo) coming to the house regularly to “create protections” for Jeanette using herbs and ceremonies. Non-Haitian veterans who are Jeanette’s friends urge her to seek mental health care at a local community-based mental health clinic for veterans.
Module 5 Case Study Discussion Points.
1. How does the nurse distinguish between normal culture-specific behavior and the clinical manifestations of mental illness in veterans who have served in combat?
2. What type of self-reflection should the nurse engage in to assure that he/she does not bring familial biases, prejudices, and other culturally specific barriers to the nurse–patient relationship?
3. Why do patients and their families choose to use traditional healing practices, such as voodooism, and seek out ethno-religious healers, such as mambos, to help people with mental health issues?
4. What impact might a mental health diagnosis, such as posttraumatic stress disorder, have on a veteran’s future?
5. Jeanette belongs to an ethnic culture (Haitian American) and nonethnic cultures (military and veteran). What characteristics of culture can you identify in the nonethnic culture of the military?
