Rural Veterans Face A Special And Alarming Set Of Social Justice Issues Essay

The issue of veterans’ health care has dominated public discourse for many years, with various statistics

This study strives to increase the awareness of healthcare disparities among veterans in hopes that veterans can receive the best healthcare possible. This study has the potential to change the structure of veterans’ health care. If their health care is damaged to the extent that some insiders and outsiders believe it to be, then hopefully the veterans’ health care system can be restructured. These disparities can be addressed in community outreach programs to expand common knowledge on the subject.

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 eligibility requirements, long wait lists and lack of providers are a few of the issues Veterans are faced with when trying to access health and mental health care. Additionally, studies indicate that veterans, predominantly those from the recent wars in Iran and Iraq, have disproportionately high amounts of mental illness (Shim & Rust, 2013). These same veterans are experiencing difficulty accessing mental health care due to issues around a backlog of healthcare eligibility applications and a shortage of mental health providers through the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), which operates the Nation’s largest, integrated health care delivery system (APA, 2014). In 2014, at the request of the Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) evaluated the merit of the allegations of mismanagement at the Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) and the Health Eligibility Center (HEC).

The presence of additional risk for homelessness specifically associated with Veteran status is puzzling in that it occurs among a population that shows better outcomes on almost all socioeconomic measures and that has exclusive access to an extensive system of benefits that include comprehensive healthcare services, disability and pension assistance, and homeless services (Fargo, et al, 24).

Destitute veterans are a real social issue confronting our general public today. Vagrancy among United States veterans are of specific concern to the general public in light of the fact that everybody sees a percentage of the weights confronting vets after coming back to regular citizen life. Who are homeless veterans then? The U.S. Division of Veterans Affairs

The article begins defining its demographic, rural native veterans. A veteran is any individual who has served in the military. Secondly, rural veterans include those living in counties with less than seven civilians per square mile (Veterans Health Administration 2008). Finally, native veterans include the following ethnic groups: American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander. According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2010) American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) veterans comprise the largest minority ethnic group in the VHA of 12 percent. The article, “Health Needs of Rural Native Veterans” addresses health care disparities such as poverty, limited access to care, and education that the identified population is

One reason for this is due to the fact that many of these veterans reside in rural areas where it is difficult for them to obtain access to care due to limited resources and the need to travel large distances for care (Helseth).

Steps have been taken to improve the situation for rural and highly rural veterans. In 2011 President Obama “pledged the support of the federal government for increased behavioral health care services through prevention-based alternatives and integration of community-based services through the Strengthening Our Military Families initiative.”(Helseth). Also in 2011 then VA head Eric Shinseki took part is a Listening and Walking Tour, visiting veterans in North Dakota, Montana, and Alaska.

The men and women who serve our country risk their lives every single day to protect their country and the people in it. Out of all sacrifices one could make, going to war to protect their country is the largest offering a human will ever be able to make. It is not of monetary value that these sacrifices are paid, but rather in blood. And if these soldiers are able to come home, treatment is less than mediocre. A census report shows, “There [is] 21.8 million veterans of the U.S. armed forces as of 2014” (Risen). With that large of a number of people to take care of, it is not always easy to help everyone. In continuation, only 8.3 million veterans are receiving veterans affairs benefits and care (“By the Numbers: Veterans”). The amount

Stotzer, Whealin & Darden (2012) state that ”Veterans may face significant social challenges in obtaining services in their communities” (p. 1). Their work reports that the stigma of mental health problems and the difficulty in finding and maintaining  jobs, prevents many veterans from benefiting from  possible life saving services (Stotzer, Whealin & Darden, 2012, p. 1).

Have you ever wondered what happens to war vets when they return home from the front lines? Some of the outcomes are not as happy as most people would like them to be. War veterans that survive come home with Mental Illnesses and other issues. Many war veterans end up homeless because of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, and some are even living with the homeless men and women at shelters because they cannot receive the help they need from the government. In a study from a Research Brief in 2012, “Veteran and non-veteran participants were compared in a nationally-supported housing initiative for chronically homeless adults. Veterans were not found to be at increased risk for adverse outcomes once

The failure of the United States government to sufficiently care for their men and women in the military can be seen in the number of homeless veterans. In fact, the U.S. Housing and Urban development (H.U.D.) reports there are over 39,000 members of the armed services living on the street (2016). The main causes of vagrancy among veterans include lack of housing, jobs, and access to health care (National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, n.d.). Men and women ex-soldiers run a higher risk of becoming homeless if they are: suffering from a mental illness or substance abuse problem; lack support systems; or are disabled (Ainslie & Cooper, 2016).

n.d.) begin the process of entering the Veterans Affairs Health Care System (VA). One of the chief complaints of the VA system is the wait times between exiting service and receiving care, which can take months, and can prove absolutely detrimental to the chronically behavioral health disabled who depend on prescription and other services. To alleviate this, the VA has created local hubs available to all veterans, Vet Centers. These centers offer individual counseling; counseling for family members; medical referrals; assistance in applying for VA benefits; alcohol and drug abuse assessments; outreach; and community education (“Vet Center Program” n.d.). Thus, serving as an in-between support structure and a tool to identify those with higher priority needs that slipped through the cracks. Once in the system, recent studies have found the quality and access of care provided by VA tends to be equal to or greater than care provided by the private sector; however, there is considerable variation across centers and types of care (“Balancing Demand and Supply for Veterans' Health Care”,

The Veterans Administration (VA) has taken steps to help alleviate the situation of severe backlogs in their health care system. The VA has implemented programs to help ensure that veterans experiencing urgent mental health needs will be able to attain same day services (p. 18, Philpott).

One of the great gifts we receive as Americans is freedom; something we must thank all of the men and women who serve in the various armed forces for protecting. The unfortunate reality is that these men and women often don’t receive proper care when returning home from overseas especially when it comes to health care. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has spent a lot of time in local and national headlines after many veterans suffered serious illness and even death as a result of unresolved issues in the system. Two of the VA’s spotlight issues include the long wait for service and the image of non-caring employees. The combination of these issues was blamed for multiple veteran’s deaths in 2012 and is a large talking point for the current