Series: Moral Injury, WBUR

WBUR's Martha Bebinger

In early 2013, amid reports about a spike in suicide among veterans the year before, I began digging into the research about why. The work of Jonathan Shay, Brett Litz and colleagues stood out. These men and women had survey results that showed the prominence of an often unrecognized and untreated condition researchers called moral injury. Could moral injury explain why veterans were killing themselves at record rates?  To address that question, we found veterans who spoke eloquently about the impact of this condition on their lives. We explained the promise and pitfalls of research on moral injury and we spoke to leaders in different branches of the military where interest in the topic varies. We commissioned a short graphic novel to help spread the story to a different audience and we used social media to converse with veterans well beyond the scope and reach of the WBUR audience.