Mental Health Services For Veterans Research Paper

Words: 1190
Pages: 5

Mental Health Services for Veterans
Jessica White
NUR 380
May 4, 2017

MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES FOR VETERANS
The mental health system currently caring for our soldiers is unable to efficiently address the needs of our new recruits and post-deployment soldiers. The Veteran's Administration and Department of Defense are addressing the issue, but the political process is slow, and we are losing lives. Suicide rates are double what you would find in the civilian population, and growing. Availability, quality, and stigmatization of mental health care are at the heart of the issue. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Damage Disorder will continue to affect communities forever because of wars past, current, and future.
The wars
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One of the studies included in the Army STARRS (Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Service Members) report concluded that of the respondents of their surveys, a significant percentage of soldiers had struggled with mental health problems before recruitment (Blanchard, 2014). Mental health evaluations are part of the enlistment process, but the evaluation is dependent upon self-disclosure. Recruits know that you risk not accepted due to pre-existing conditions, and consequently, the information withheld on entry applications. Testing for mental illness in a recruit is subjective and dense. Uncovering whether the disease can prove as pre-existing or not is problematic. Symptoms of mental illness can be latent, then exacerbated by military experiences. As the testing becomes more rigorous there is a chance that the illness is reported even less. Given the subjective nature of mental illness, self-disclosure is a significant part of the diagnostic …show more content…
Suicide rates within the military community are nearly double what you would find within the civilian population, and there is no end in sight. Mental health services are underutilized considerably, reasons for this range from fear of being stigmatized by peers to geographic considerations. The procedure for assessing, diagnosing, and caring for mental illness for our military members needs an overhaul, particularly in the recruitment and post-deployment stages. Changes in cultural viewpoints and recent increases in funding from the government are helping, but there is still a lot of work to be done. Nurses will be on the “front lines” so to speak treating veterans that are mentally ill. Veteran’s hospitals will not be the only healthcare facility offering treatment to the veteran population. They will be presenting in the civilian milieu as well; walk in clinics, emergency rooms, and doctors’