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Evaluating A Service Member For Mst

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The first step in assessing a service member for MST is to evaluate if the service member has experienced any unwanted sexual attention, uninvited sexual advances, or forced sex while in the military and whether the experience continues to affect their daily life. Some other assessment questions should assess for prior history of trauma, the types of responses they received at the time of the MST and whether the MST happened once or was repeated over time. Due to MST being associated with PTSD, depression, anxiety, or substance use, it is important that an assessment also looks at past experiences with psychiatric conditions as well as current mental health diagnoses. Similar to assessing for PTSD, a provider should assess for, work functioning, interpersonal functioning, recreation and self-care, physical functioning, psychological symptoms, coping mechanisms, and past traumatic events or deployment experiences. Some other characteristics an MST assessment should have include questions based off of the experiences someone with MST may have. Some responses to MST may include, sexual difficulties, chronic pain, weight or eating problems or gastrointestinal problem. Psychologically, as a result of the MST service members may have PTSD or depression. They may also experience strong emotions, difficulties with memories, feeling of numbness, or trouble sleeping due to nightmares. Socially, service members may experience difficulties in their relationships (Military Sexual

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