Veterans have manifested significant mental or behavioral health issues and in turn, health care services have been set to respond to their needs through educating community health care providers to work with veterans, service members and their families. As Zeiss & Karlin (2008) demonstrates, health care system has partnered with national organizations, health services, resources administration and other major mental projects that target the veterans to ensure effective services to mental health concerns. There are many inter-professional roles geared towards veterans due to their wide-range of mental issues including physicians, psychologists, social workers, substance abuse professionals, licensed counselors, public health workers, therapists related to marriage and family issues, nurses, chaplains, law enforcement and occupational therapists. In the course of this discussion, the way veterans mental issues has been addressed will be constricted to nursing setting to describe the scope, severity, behavioral health issues and responses among veterans. In nursing care setting, there nursing skills are required to deal with veterans’ mental health. The process of identifying the prevailing mental health conditions and how to make interventions matters a lot in order to ensure full recovery. My desire for care had been long-established from childhood through schooling and now in the placement I found it useful and applicable in veterans’ case. In addition, I have developed awareness of mental health issues in respect to psychological problems throughout my course and I faced the need to use such skills in interventions to reassure veterans’ recovery. Nurses have effectively attended to veterans’ mental and behavioral issues. For ... ... middle of paper ... ...e who have misused drugs and alcohol significantly require support and more care even though they comprise of a small portion of the veterans with mental problems. What we actually did when placed in vet centers was to promote the veterans to assess their own needs as well as development of a plan to meet the needs. As Brancu, Straits-Tröster & Kudler (2011) points out; Individual veterans are informed about different choices for available care and support. As a professional, a nurse is regulated by wide-range of ethical consideration to ensure that the veteran’s patients are treated with respect and dignity. In turn, we were to ensure veteran autonomy in determining what to confide about and what to conceal. Confidentiality and privacy is another most important ethical aspect I found to be a consideration to avoid private information spilling to unintended persons.
While John is under a great deal of stress, he is in the hands of seasoned professionals who all share the same goal, getting John better. St. Luke’s, a medical center geared towards helping veterans, has provided John a knowledgeable health care provider team to help meet his needs. John’s interprofessional team is being put together by John’s primary care physician, Dr. Jackson, and his licensed clinical social worker, Tessa. The team is kept small due to John’s reservations about opening up to people. The rest of his team will consist of a veterans affairs representative to help John seek any veterans benefits he is entitled to, as well as a mental health case manager. Lastly, a CNA assigned to help John integrate into life in a home with others while he tries to get a handle on his depression and Alzheimer’s.
Services for PTSD." Do Veterans Receive Adequate Health Care? Ed. Susan C. Hunnicutt. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue. Rpt. from "Court Orders Major Overhaul of VA's Mental Health System." Los Angeles Times 11 May 2011. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 8 June 2014.
When we picture the United States Military we regard men and women in uniform fighting for our country. However, what we do not picture is the hidden problems. Stress of the job, members returning home from war, and combat create an increased stress level that can result in abusing substances and cause behavioral problems. The military has recognized that this has become a problem and is now taking steps to ensure their members safety.
Stuart, G. W. (2009). Principles and Practice of Psychiatric Nursing (9th ed. pp 561). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Mosby.
Seal, Karen H., Daniel Bertenthal, Christian R. Miner, Saunak Sen, and Charles Marmar. "Bringing the War Back Home: Mental Health Disorders Among 103 788 US Veterans Returning From Iraq and Afghanistan Seen at Department of Veterans Affairs Facilities." Archives of Internal Medicine 167.5 (2007): 476-82. Print.
Vet Centers understand and appreciate Veterans’ war experiences while assisting them and their family members toward a successful post-war adjustment in or near their community." Their aim is to serve Veterans and their families by providing a continuum of valuable care that will later add value to the Veterans, their families, and communities. “Care” comes from the professional readjustment counseling, community education, outreach to special populations, the brokering of services in the U.S. Department of Veteran
Veterans have struggles with their civilian life after separating from the U.S Armed Forces. Returning to the civilian life seem to be a big challenge for veterans who have no prior job’s skills for civilian life because they had been influenced from military’s training, have physical and psychological damage.
The life of a veteran isn’t always as honorable as it seems. There are many discrepancies surrounding the actual day-to-day life of a veteran. These discrepancies, also inconsistencies, come as a result of these veterans not receiving the appropriate type of help that one would deem fit for brave men and women who once risked their lives to defend and protect the country from terrorism. In general, veteran’s health, wellness, and daily living should be a priority to the government. It should be something that is automatically afforded as a symbol of gratitude to returning vets who took up that pledge to go fight for the country.
This review will seek to give a detailed look at the causes, treatment, and after care of homeless veterans. To analyze war history seeking the compatible link between combat service and homelessness status. Focusing on the factors that contribute to this growing population.
It seems that within the United States, today, there seem to be a concerning issue about veterans, who are homeless. These veterans are suffering from various mental health issues, drug and alcohol abuse, and other disorders. One-third of the homeless population are veterans, who cannot find or maintain housing and are unemployed. Unemployment and homelessness are the two biggest concerns for veterans in the United States. Veterans lost their homes and employment due to the prolonged tours in Iraq, Vietnam and etc. All of the wars that veterans have been involve in has ruined their health. According to National Coalition for Veterans (2011), veterans have a difficult time finding employment that will not cause any more damage to their
One of the most serious problems facing all veterans today is the lack of proper healthcare. Soldiers, sailors and airmen are leaving active duty without having proper healthcare to cover their physical or mental injuries. The department responsible for veteran’s healthcare is the Department of Veterans Affairs. (VA) According to The department of Veterans Affairs website, “The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a government-run military veteran benefit system with Cabinet-level status. It is responsible for administering programs of veterans’ benefits for veterans, their families, and survivors. The benefits provided include disability compensation, pension, education, home loans, life insurance, vocational rehabilitation, survivors’ benefits, medical benefits and burial benefits. It is administered by the United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs.” The VA, who was formerly called the Veterans Administration, was established 21 July 1930, to consolidate and coordinate government activities affecting war veterans. The VA encompassed the functions of the former U.S. Veterans' Bureau, the Bureau of Pensions of the Interior Department and the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. On 25 October 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation creating a new federal Cabinet-level Department of Veterans Affairs to replace the Veterans Administration effective 15 March 1989 (V.A.)
Veterans risk their lives for the country’s safety and return home with a multitude of health problems. Among 22 million veterans, only 8.92 million are currently in Veterans Administration (VA) Health Care System due to eligibility criteria and access to care issues. VA health care system has longer wait times and sub-standard care for this small segment of the veteran population itself. VA currently has 52,085 nurses working in their system, and this vast group of nurses can impact the quality of health care of veterans by practicing and advocating best evidence-based practices (Weber & Clark, 2016).
This bill was introduced to “enforce the Secretary of Veteran Affairs to conduct annual evaluations of mental health care and suicide prevention programs of the Department of Veterans Affairs.” In essence, it was proposed because of the high suicide rates that occur with veterans and as a way to help those individuals with increase access to better quality health care and ultimately decrease the statistics of veteran suicide. The bill wants to propose three different acts if passed. First it would like to increase health care by programs, peer community groups, and online resources to help individuals going through mental trauma. Secondly, it wants to start a program to pay the college loans of students in psychiatry in order to easier recruit
A person who has untreated PTSD could face many severe consequences such as substance abuse, anger management issues, loneliness, and severe depression. From the years 2000 to 2007, 14% of veterans were diagnosed with depression. Clinical depression is a serious medical illness that involves disturbances in mood, concentration, sleep, activity level, interests, appetite and social behavior. Symptoms of depression include: persistently sad mood, changes in sleeping and eating habits, difficulty thinking and concentrating, lack of interest, feelings of worthlessness, and thoughts of suicide (Duckworth). These symptoms cause the individual to alter their way of thinking and often lead them to suicide. The number of veterans committing suicide every day is 22, which accounts for 22% of national suicides (Kemp). Substance abuse and homelessness are also common among veterans with mental illnesses. Substance abuse is often a result of mental illness, as the National Alliance of Mental Illness states, “An estimated 1.2 million male veterans were identified as living with serious mental illness. Approximately 340,000 of these individuals had co-occurring substance abuse disorders. Approximately 209,000 female veterans (13.1 percent) reported serious mental illness, and 25,000 (1.6 percent) reported co-occurring substance use disorder with mental illness” (Mental Illnesses). Having co-occurring mental health problems can lead to detachment from others, problems at work, and potentially homelessness. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reported in 2011 that there is an estimate of 67,000 former service men and women homeless on a given night. Programs such as “Opening Doors: Homelessness Among Veterans” have been implemented in order to try to end the widespread homelessness of military veterans. While some aspects of this plan have seemed to work, there is still a
Varcarolis, E. M., Carson, V. B., & Shoemaker, N. C. (2006). In Foundations of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing (p. 283). St. Louis: Elsevier Inc.