Penn Law Ethics Center to Screen Documentary Film About Mental Health Struggles Facing U.S

R For immediate release Contact: Andrew McAninch, [email protected], 215-746-8892 Penn Law Ethics Center to Screen Documentary Film about Mental Health Struggles facing U.S. Veterans on Wednesday, April 20th April 18, 2016 The Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law (CERL) at the University of Pennsylvania will host a screening of the new documentary film entitled Thank You for Your Service. The event will take place on Wednesday, April 20th at 4:30pm and will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with Tom Donahue, the film’s director; Dr. Stephen Xenakis, retired Brigadier General, U.S. Army, and combat trauma expert; Ben Richards, retired Major, U.S. Army; and Dr. Mark Russell, retired Commander, U.S. Navy, and military clinical psychologist, who is featured in the film. The panel will be moderated by Professor Claire Finkelstein, Algernon Biddle Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy, and CERL’s Founder and Director. A public reception will follow. Thank You for Your Service makes a powerful statement about our insufficient understanding of combat trauma, moral injury, and how the impact of trauma should figure in the costs of war. Director Tom Donahue (Casting By) interweaves the stories of four struggling Iraq War veterans with candid interviews of top military and civilian leaders. Observing the systemic neglect of trauma victims, the film argues for significant internal change and offers a roadmap of hope. The film features interviews with former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Admiral Mike Mullen, Generals David Petraeus and Loree Sutton, Sebastian Junger, Nicholas Kristof, Dexter Filkins, Senator Patty Murray, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and Colonels Lawrence Wilkerson and Dave Sutherland. The event is free and open to the public and will be held at Fitts Auditorium at the University of Pennsylvania Law School (3501 Sansom St.). Guests should register here: https://www.law.upenn.edu/newsevents/calendar.php#event_id/52418/view/event. Donahue elaborates on the evolution of the film: “Over years of listening and asking questions of countless experts who are on the front lines of the current discussion, we noticed a common denominator among many of the stories we heard. Mental health problems started early in a soldier’s service and were rarely dealt with comprehensively or at all. A turning point for the film came in the spring of 2013 when I met and interviewed retired Navy Psychologist Dr. Mark Russell. The son of a Vietnam veteran who grew up on military bases during the height of the Vietnam War, Dr. Russell has made the issue of military mental health his life's work. He understands the systemic reasons for the failure and has sought out possible solutions.” One of the core recommendations to come out of the film is the implementation of a Behavioral Health Corps in the military, where behavioral health could take priority both in training and treatment. The formation of such a corps is the primary goal of BHCNOW, a social action campaign the filmmakers established as a complement to the film. Donahue: “It is my hope that Thank You for Your Service will jump start a serious-minded and much-needed conversation about the mental health issues facing those who have served our country, those who are currently serving and those who will serve in the future. We hope the film can help change policies and outdated attitudes, showing that we value the mental health of our troops as much as we do their physical health. The time has come.” The Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law (CERL) is a non-partisan interdisciplinary institute dedicated to the preservation and promotion of ethics and the rule of law in twenty-first century warfare and national security. The only center of its kind housed within a law school, CERL draws from the study of law, philosophy, and ethics to answer the difficult questions that arise in times of war and contemporary transnational conflicts. CERL represents the vision of its Founder and Director, Professor Claire Finkelstein, University of Pennsylvania Law School Algernon Biddle Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy, in uniting scholars, practitioners, and policymakers in multi-disciplinary conversations on some of the most challenging issues of our time. For more, please visit CERL’s website: https://www.law.upenn.edu/institutes/cerl. Last December, CERL hosted an interdisciplinary conference entitled Preventing and Treating the Invisible Wounds of War: Combat Trauma and Psychological Injury. The gathering united mental health practitioners, military leaders, veterans advocates, legal scholars, philosophers as well as veterans affected by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to discuss both scholarly and practical advances in the effort to combat psychological injury from armed conflict. A central theme of the conference was the psychological and social burdens of PTSD on both veterans and society, as well as an assessment of how those burdens should figure in the costs of war. Conference participants were in broad agreement that the consequences of deployment, especially physical and psychological trauma, including PTSD and moral injury, should be factored into political decisions to enter war or wage peace. The conference also explored ethical dilemmas that arise in the prevention and treatment of combat-based mental health injuries, and experts debated the merits of different treatment modalities. CERL’s screening and discussion of Thank You for Your Service continues its work on issues concerning veterans. The event is co-sponsored by University of Pennsylvania’s Veterans Upward Bound, the Campaign for Community, and the Penn Program on Documentaries and the Law. .

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