The Devastating Consequences of the Military’s Inaction on Sexual Assault
Reading Time: 5 minutesMilitary sexual trauma: How sexual assault in the military contributes to suicide—and what the Department of Defense should do to address it.
When she was sexually assaulted, Bella Poarch was 18, on her first assignment for the U.S.
Navy. Her attacker was someone she knew. She showed up to work with cuts and bruises on her face and neck. At first, Poarch—who is now one of the most popular creators on TikTok—didn’t want to report the assault, she recently recalled in an interview on the podcast Call Her Daddy. But then, she thought about the horrifying possibility of other sailors being assaulted. Military authorities didn’t believe her at first, she said, putting her through what she called a long process of interrogation until she was able to convince them that the crime had occurred. ‘It was like I was a suspect, and they were interviewing me,’ she said in the podcast. ‘Like ‘Oh, did this really happen?’ ‘
After the experience, Poarch suffered from anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, she recalled to host Alex Cooper. She survived a suicide attempt and was hospitalized. (The Navy has said it cannot comment on specific incidents like this one.)
The suicide rate for women who join the United States military—11.7 per 100,000—is more than double the national average for women, according to 2020 data from the Department of Defense’s annual suicide prevention reports. After leaving the service, according to data from the Department of Veterans Affairs, the rate for these women jumps to 14.7.
Military suicide rates are influenced by a variety of factors, but research has shown that sexual assault and harassment are undeniable parts of the equation. A 2015 study on suicide mortality and military sexual trauma, or MST, identified MST as a significant independent risk factor for male and female veterans. Nearly 1 in 4 servicewomen report experiencing sexual assault in the military, and more than half report experiencing sexual harassment. Among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans diagnosed with PTSD, 31 percent of women screened positive for MST. It’s clear that the military needs to be doing more to protect its service members—and while there is a promising program underway to help the mental health of survivors, it’s only a small start toward solving much larger systemic issues.
There are many stories like Poarch’s. Earlier this year, two female soldiers were found dead of suspected suicide on the same day at Fort Cavazos (formerly Fort Hood). One had told her family that she was being sexually harassed at work. Three years before, after Spc.
Vanessa Guillén, who was stationed at the same base, was murdered by a fellow service member, an Army investigation had concluded the Texas base was ‘permissive of sexual harassment and sexual assault.’ Army investigators found Guillén had been sexually harassed before her death, and the soldier accused of her murder, who died by suicide before charges were announced, had been accused of sexual harassment in another case, according to reporting from the New York Times.
Similarly, two years ago, a female Marine who went by the username Dalina posted a widely shared video on TikTok in which she described being sexually assaulted and the failures of the military to properly hold her alleged attacker responsible. After facing her perpetrator in court, she found out, to her dismay, that he only was getting pushed out with an honorable discharge. But then, even that punishment was changed. The commanding general, she said, ‘with all of the proof and an admission of guilt, decided that they would retain him.’ Such failures were ‘exactly why,’ Dalina continued, ‘females in the military fucking kill themselves.’
For MST survivors, access to lifesaving mental health care is often lacking. A recent Government Accountability Office study found that the DOD does not properly screen for experiences of sexual assault for those seeking medical care or leaving the armed services (against national guidance on the issue), does not have a system for prioritizing mental health care for sexual assault survivors, and has not figured out a way for service members to access long-term care at the VA confidentially, leading some to not seek treatment at all. Sens. Jon Tester and Lisa Murkowski introduced legislation in 2017, 2019, and 2023 that sought to improve access to mental health care for survivors of MST by expanding their treatment options at the VA—but that legislation has yet to pass. Women and LGBTQ+ service members and veterans face increased barriers to treatment.
There is, however, one intervention that appears to be gaining a foothold: Intensive Outpatient Programs, or IOPs. The 2019 National Defense Authorization Act called for the military to begin testing these programs for MST survivors; in 2021, they were rolled out at select installations across the country. The 2024 NDAA, still awaiting final passage, would transition this pilot to a full program.
A typical IOP consists of between six and nine (or more) hours a week of treatment, which is often done in cohorts—groups of participants who start and end the treatment process together. Treatment can include physical therapy and rehabilitation, cognitive behavioral therapy and cognitive processing therapy, group therapy sessions, and prolonged exposure therapy, among other types of care.
This year’s NDAA would expand these programs throughout the Department of Defense and through private-public partnerships, also treating comorbid conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries. The focus on IOPs for sexual trauma builds on existing military IOPs focused on PTSD from combat-related events. I participated in one such combat-related program during my time in the Army; I found the dedicated time and group structure helpful—an individual struggle turned into a collective one, and we supported each other through it. Research into participant outcomes from these programs has found dramatically increased treatment completion rates, clinically significant PTSD symptom reduction, and long-term treatment gains.
But whether the success of IOPs for combat-related PTSD can transfer to survivors of MST is still an open question. The DOD has not made the results of its pilot program available, and did not respond to my questions about it. This lack of transparency is a consistent issue with the military’s handling of suicide and MST.
Still, researchers have tried to evaluate IOPs for MST survivors. A RAND Corporation study looked at four IOPs, two run by the DOD and two others run by private entities. It found high rates of treatment completion, though it also identified significant barriers to expanding the treatment, including the referral process for active-duty troops, military leave polices, insurance certification, and privacy.
‘Imagine going to outpatient therapy in the middle of your workday, wearing your uniform, processing trauma, and having to go back to work after the hour is up,’ Kristie Gore, who led the RAND study, said in an email. The RAND researchers called for more DOD analysis into treatment effectiveness and the capacity of the military health care system to support the programs. ‘There need to be enough appealing, accessible, and safe treatment options to meet the many different needs of victims,’ Gore wrote.
Ultimately, IOPs are just one of several urgent interventions needed to address the military’s intersecting mental health and sexual assault crises. Josh Connolly, senior vice president of Protect Our Defenders, highlighted the need for mental health treatment procedures to be available to survivors immediately upon reporting their assaults. There’s also the issue of holding military leaders accountable for MST in their ranks.
After all, expanding mental health treatment alone doesn’t target the underlying cultural and systemic issues that brought us here in the first place. In 2021, an independent review commissioned by Congress found that service members had little faith in their senior leaders to address the issue and that victims bear a heavy burden as they attempt to navigate the military mental health and justice systems. Two years later, military branches are still failing to meet many of the recommendations called for in the report, and it’s unclear when they ever will. The GAO has been calling for some versions of these changes since 2011.
The military seems to think it has time to address the intersecting crises of sexual trauma and suicide. Stories like Poarch’s show it doesn’t. Each moment wasted puts more service members at risk. Poarch’s attacker was eventually sentenced to four years in prison by a military court, she said in the recent Call Her Daddy interview. In the process, Poarch found out she wasn’t his first victim. ‘Honestly I just thought … what if this is not the first time he did it,’ Poarch said. ‘And it actually wasn’t. He did it multiple times, and I guess when I came forward those other women came forward.’
Reference: https://slate.com/technology/2023/10/military-sexual-trauma-suicide-bella-poarch.html
Ref: slate
MediaDownloader.net -> Free Online Video Downloader, Download Any Video From YouTube, VK, Vimeo, Twitter, Twitch, Tumblr, Tiktok, Telegram, TED, Streamable, Soundcloud, Snapchat, Share, Rumble, Reddit, PuhuTV, Pinterest, Periscope, Ok.ru, MxTakatak, Mixcloud, Mashable, LinkedIn, Likee, Kwai, Izlesene, Instagram, Imgur, IMDB, Ifunny, Gaana, Flickr, Febspot, Facebook, ESPN, Douyin, Dailymotion, Buzzfeed, BluTV, Blogger, Bitchute, Bilibili, Bandcamp, Akıllı, 9GAG