Beginning with a religious service and planting of miniature American flags at Veterans Plaza, representatives of the military and clergy are attended an all-day event Nov. 12, marking the dedication of the Soul Repair Center at Brite Divinity School.

 

The new program is dedicated to research and public education about moral injury by creating resources and training programs for clergy, nonprofit leaders, clinicians, chaplains, and communities that want to support military veterans’ recovery from moral injury. [Moral injury occurs when a war combatant violates deeply held moral beliefs and can no longer make meaning or sense out of the world.

 

“Veteran suicide rates are alarmingly high, and we believe one important factor is the neglect of attention to moral injury. It is confused with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but they are different,” according to project director Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock.  “Moral injury is the response of healthy people to war, not a psychological disorder,” she explains.