Improving Veterans Access For Mental Health Care Using Transformational Leadership Strategies

Take care of Veterans I believe that it is the best interest of veterans, whom have served the military in any capacity to be afforded not just medication, but also some form of counseling. Being a veteran myself I have experienced: over medicating by the government, not receiving any form of counseling, and when I was given an appointment it was six months from the day that it was scheduled.

Improving Veterans Access to Care What is the problem? The Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA) has been tasked with providing support and benefits to Veterans after they have completed their service. However, many Veterans are reporting difficulty accessing care due to systematic barriers within the VA’s Veterans Health Administration (Oliver, 2007). Complex

Overview In the past few years there has been increasing discussion about how to provide adequate care for the increasing number of veterasn who are eligible for care through the Veterans’ healthcare administration (VHA). There are concerns is that the VHA is not providing the level of access, efficiency, and quality of care that veterans expect. Lee & Begley, (2016) suggest access to care for the veteran population may be resulting in poor health outcomes. In response to these concerns, the Veterans ' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act (VACAA) of 2014, also known as the Veterans Choice Act, was created to improve Veterans’ healthcare. The VACAA proposed to do this by expanding the number of options veterans have for receiving healthcare, by providing access for healthcare at non-VA care centers as well as providing for an increase in staffing at VA facilities (U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2016).

The Veterans Health Administration is home to the United States’ largest integrated health care system consisting of 150 medical centers, nearly 1,400 community-based outpatient clinics, community living centers, Vet Centers and Domiciliary. Together these health care facilities and the more than 53,000 independent licensed health care practitioners who work within them provide comprehensive care to more than 8.3 million Veterans each year. VHA Medical Centers provide a wide range of services including traditional hospital-based services such as surgery, critical care, mental health, orthopedics, pharmacy, radiology and physical therapy. In addition, most of the medical centers offer additional medical and surgical specialty services including audiology & speech pathology, dermatology, dental, geriatrics, neurology, oncology, podiatry, prosthetics, urology, and vision

• Nearly 50% of combat veterans from Iraq report that they have suffered from PTSD. • 40% of veterans report problem alcohol use. • According to estimates from 2010, approximately 22 veterans died as a result of suicide each day in that calendar year.

SOWK 641- Fall 2016 Assignment#2: Article Reviews Mary Marrone USC School of Social Work October 6, 2016 Course Instructor: Dr. Finney Key Points Both articles identify the issue of providing mental health services for veterans with an extra emphasis on those that served in Afghanistan and Iraq (OEF/OIF veterans). It is no surprise that returning veterans suffer from both visible/invisible (physical and mental) wounds. Most veterans have this “high” expectation that they are going to receive quality care from both the DoD and VA. Unfortunately reality steps in where veterans are slapped in the face because they are receiving a lack of poor quality care all while jumping through Beuracractic hoops. The challenges faced to access these services include resistance, stigma, lack of professionalism, and geographic and/or regional disparities in the distribution of services resources and/or benefits, and the system simply refusing to change.

For many years, the VA has offered health care to the men and women who have surrendered a large part of their lives to protect our nation. The VA has made great stride in providing specialized services to veterans such as Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Military Sexual Trauma (MST), and Mental Health treatment. In fact, the VA is leading the field on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) research, but now that many of our men and women are returning home from war, the commitment that the VA made to provide accessible health services and a smooth transition from military life back to civilian life to these heroes and their dependents are not being granted in a timely manner. Studies show that suicide among veterans is the number one leading cause of death in the United States and

The VHA scheme presents an issue when it comes to highly rural veterans since only half of the Highly Rural enrollees reside within an hour of primary care. Approximately 70% of rural veterans still have to travel for more than two hours in order to get to acute care facilities and more than four hours to obtain tertiary care (West et al).

Mental Healthcare for Vulnerable Veterans Introduction “The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is home to the United States’ largest integrated health care system” (Mason e.t. al 2016). Because of technological and medical advancement, surviving injuries from war has lead to a greater need for post deployment and discharge care. I often hear the phrase “Freedom is not free”; the mental health of our active duty soldiers and veterans is one area that ends up costing America. Some lose time with their families, some are injured physically and mentally, and some lose their lives.

Every winter, I have fond memories of sitting around the Christmas tree, eagerly opening presents with my family, and walking downtown with my friends, with the brilliant lights in the trees and our footprints quickly being covered up again by the snow. Family and friends are the most precious things,

Background: VHA is currently monitored using a performance tool called the Strategic Analytics for Improvement and Learning (SAIL). There is specific metric for Mental Health that focuses on Veteran satisfaction. Unfortunately, the national survey does not provide enough information for us to identify areas for improvement. We are therefore conducting our own internal interviews using the TruthPoint assessment tool.

A large portion of veterans may be undiagnosed with mental health issues. Many service men and women severed their country, by fighting the war against terrorism, on the streets of Iraq and Afghanistan. During this time, many of these individuals are faced with unbelievable grief of losing friends, loved ones, and comrades. They put their mind and body under an enormous amount of stress/pressure due to the on edge atmosphere, in which they reside in. Upon returning home from a six month to a year deployment these soldiers change in ways they may not know of, according to Clum he was unaware of his post-traumatic stress syndrome, depression and mild traumatic brain injury (fox news). The veteran courts specialize in

The VA is failing and they should do more to help our veterans, here are 3 facts that support that statement. Number 1 more than 50% of our veterans who need mental health evaluations do not get them in time.Number 2 A

Informative information, mental health is very important for military personnel, and veterans. They experience events that normal citizen could ever understand, I personally feel they should receive health with their mental health and or well-being in general free from charge. They should total support from our country, many of them feel a need to hide any problems because they are “strong”. Its health professional duties to encourage them to seek help and support them completely when it comes to their health defiantly mental health.

One major tenant of the program is recovery and recovery oriented treatments. Due to the nature of the mental illness that the veteran is suffering from their needs may be judge on a more in-depth assessment of the veteran. Case Mangers will on average personally visit a veteran two to three times a week. This is done so that the veteran who has issues coming to a VA facility won’t have to miss treatment. Case Mangers depending on the severity of illness will commit to a more intensive case management services. This would be done if a veteran is in a process of detrition if all are in agreement who are motoring the veteran. Case Manager and psychiatrist who hold daily rounds will review the veterans chart a proper course of action. Assessment and treatment data will be reviewed and analyzed by leadership to determine if program would be effective. .