‘Trying to Fix What is Broken’: Experiences of Encountering Children in Armed Conflict During Military Service

Canadian Armed Forces Veterans, clinicians, and researchers (n = 39) engaged in Participatory Action Research to enhance understanding of the mental health impacts of deployment-related encounters with children and to identify recommendations to better prevent, mitigate, and address the mental health effects of these encounters. Four key findings emerged: (1) the variation and gendered experiences and impacts of encounters with children; (2) the need for pre-deployment education around concepts of moral injury, military culture and childhood; (3) the role of military institutional readiness and proactive leadership support in mitigating the impacts of potentially morally injurious encounters with children; and (4) a requirement for long-term, comprehensive and integrated services, spanning formal and informal networks, to support personnel impacted by encounters with children. This research reveals that centreing shared experiences through participatory and trauma-informed approaches in military mental health research offer meaningful insights on addressing moral injuries related to encounters with children.