
Breaking Ranks: How Medically Released Canadian Military Veteran Men Understand the PTSD Diagnosis
By: John Whelan and Maya Eichler
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.21061/jvs.v8i3.345 | Journal eISSN: 2470-4768
Language: English
Page range: 25 - 36
Submitted on: Mar 20, 2022
Accepted on: Jun 14, 2022
Published on: Aug 4, 2022
Published by: Virginia Tech Publishing
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Keywords:
© 2022 John Whelan, Maya Eichler, published by Virginia Tech Publishing
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.