Veterans Mental Health

Literature Review 1.2: How can the US Care for the Mental Health of its Current and Former Military Personnel?

Introduction:

The quality of care in the Veterans Affairs health-care system has been a major problem for years now. Incompetence and corruption within the Veteran Affairs has increased the risk of further injuries and even death for veterans who choose to utilize the Veteran Affairs Health Care centers and hospitals. There have been multiple programs implemented by the federal government to remedy these problems, but these ‘improvements’ have actually hindered veterans in their efforts to obtain adequate health care. All of these problems hinder the care of physical injuries, while the mental health of these vets remains a secondary

Each year, the VHA provides health services to approximately 5 million veterans—roughly one-fifth of all veterans living in the United States.” (McCarthy 1033) This is an overwhelming number of patients to care for, and this brings out all sorts of problems. Vsevolod Rozanov stated that “Studies aiming to identify if war veterans are at higher risk of suicide have often produced inconsistent results; this could be due to the complexity of comparisons and different methodological approaches” The main problem is quality of care. There seems to be a severe drop in quality of care as soon as a person is labeled a veteran. The mental health needs of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan is a top concern for the VHA. “In 2007, Congress required the Department of Veterans Affairs to implement a comprehensive suicide prevention program.” (McCarthy 1034) This legislature shows the demanding needs associated with veterans that served in this region. Researchers have shown the number of suicides among service members is drastically higher than the statistics observed in civilians. The factors attributing to this epidemic are known, however there is still much needed research on more effective methods on caring for the mental health on returning service members. Dr. Kara Zivin observes in her research of VA Patients that “Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with comorbid depression was associated with lower suicide rates, and younger depressed veterans with PTSD had a higher suicide rate than did older depressed veterans with PTSD.” This indicates that the patients are not obtaining long term repair with the current techniques used by neurological specialists. With the advancement of this field will bring an obtainable goal of permanent repair and regression of suicidal thoughts and tendencies. Early onset