Can scuba diving offer therapeutic benefit to military veterans experiencing physical and psychological injuries as a result of combat?
Below is a ling to an amazing article regarding scuba diving and the benefits for Military Veterans that have experienced combat.
Abstract
Purpose: To explore the effectiveness of scuba diving in providing therapeutic and rehabilitative benefit to ex-service personnel who have experienced traumatic physical and/or psychological injuries resulting from combat.
Methods: This study took the form of a service evaluation of Deptherapy, a UK-based niche charity offering support to military veterans who have experienced life-changing injuries. Deptherapy provides scuba diving qualifications, consisting of theory and practical diving experience, to participants alongside a Peer Support Buddy scheme that provides continuing support to servicemen involved with the charity. A total of 15 male veterans were invited to take part in the study. The methodology comprised retrospective and current quantitative measures of mental well-being and functional ability, utilising the General Health Questionnaire-28, and subsequent semi-structured interviews with participants, their families and health professionals.
Results: Participants reported an improvement in levels of anxiety, depression and social functioning, and a reduction in insomnia, following their involvement in organised scuba diving activities. There was a mean average difference of 14.3 points improvement on the General Health Questionnaire-28 scale variants between prior interaction with Deptherapy and current perceptions following engagement with the programme. The positive perceptions, as indicated from the semi-structured interviews, were more pronounced in those whose injuries were predominantly psychological, rather than physical.
Conclusion: Scuba diving can offer significant therapeutic benefits, particularly for ex-military amputees experiencing co-morbid anxiety and/or chronic psychological adjustment disorders, notably in terms of improvements in social dysfunction and symptomology of depression.
Implications for Rehabilitation Scuba Diving as a Therapy
Military combat can result in devastating, chronic physical and/or psychological injury.
Current research suggests that a combination of medical and psychological therapy may prove to be the most beneficial for military veterans.
Scuba diving has the potential to benefit injured veterans due the requirement of complete focus and the feeling of weightlessness when underwater.
This article evaluates whether scuba diving is an effective physical and psychological therapy through GHQ-28 analysis and veteran interviews.
Scuba diving benefited injured veterans in terms of chronic pain relief and depression symptoms alleviation.
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Acknowledgements
Firstly, we wish to thank Deptherapy & Deptherapy UK for giving us the opportunity to carry out this research within their organisation; it was a privilege to be allowed access to Armed Forces veterans who had received major injuries as a consequence of their service. We also wish to thank Dr. Joanne Thompson and Dr. Jennifer Swann within the University of Sheffield Medical School for their agreement to include this innovative area within the Community Placement Scheme and for their interest and support throughout. Finally, and above all, we are immensely grateful to the military veterans for their participation and for their very willing, open and clear descriptors of living with life-changing injuries and chronic psychological adjustment disorders.
Ethical approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the University of Sheffield and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Disclosure statement
With the exception of R.C., all authors declared that they have no conflict of interest. All authors contributed to the initiation of the study, study design, conduct of the study, analysis and interpretation of the data and preparation of the manuscript. R.C. is also a Vice President of Deptherapy & Deptherapy Education UK and, in accordance with the ethical guidelines of the British Psychological Society, played no part in the analysis and interpretation of the data to ensure that the findings could not be directly or indirectly tainted.
Additional information
Funding
This study was completed through the University of Sheffield Community Placement Scheme and attracted no significant costs. Incidental travel costs within the Sheffield area were funded by the University and additional costs for travel and subsistence were met by Deptherapy & Deptherapy Education UK.
Credit: .https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09638288.2018.1480667?src=recsys
