Analyzing Mental Health Service Gaps for Veterans: HCM 340 Report

This report examines the critical gap in equity related to mental health access for veterans. It highlights the increased risks of mental health problems, including PTSD, major depression, and anxiety, faced by veterans deployed to combat zones. The report discusses the existing systems of care, such as the Military Health System and the Veterans Health Administration, and identifies the persistent gap in service delivery. It traces the history of this gap back to the Vietnam War and explores factors like discharge status, long waitlists, socioeconomic backgrounds, and lack of resources. The report analyzes the impact of these gaps on veterans' lives, including increased suicidal behaviors and worsened health conditions. It concludes by emphasizing the need for government intervention and program development to improve veterans' access to mental health services and reduce suicide rates.

Running Head: MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES FOR THE VETERANS
Mental Health Services for the Veterans
Name
Institution

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Mental Health Services for the Veterans
Introduction
The current topic on a gap in equity interrelated to mental health access for veterans are
important in understanding the challenges faced by the veterans and develop the necessary
solutions to help this population. The veterans deployed to combat zones experience increased
risks of mental health problems. Whilst many of the veterans return home from the deployment
and reintegrate successfully into the civilian life, a huge proportion of these veterans develop
mental health problems, comprising posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depression, as
well as anxiety (Hester, 2017). There have been systems of care that have been developed for
veterans and their families that include the Military Health System (MHS), nonmilitary private
plus community healthcare providers and the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). However,
despite these initiatives, there is a gap in equity for the veterans to access mental health services.
Gap in Delivering Mental Health Access for Veterans
America has become a nation, which is constantly at war. Majorly the war in Iraq and
Afghanistan combined sent over 2 million troops into the war and this lead to over 6,800 deaths
and 48,000 injuries. This has made the number veterans to increase and active duty members to
suffer from some kind of mental diseases. This condition has fashioned a crisis among the
veterans. Thus, the present uneven access to suitable mental healthcare amongst the veterans
from war reflects the inequalities in the access to quality mental healthcare. Studies have

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indicated that nearly half of the veterans that have PTSD are getting the needed treatment that
they need in the United States (Cheney et al., 2018).
History of this Gap in Access to Healthcare
The gap in access to mental health care can be traced back to the period of Vietnam wars.
Thousands of military members developed profound symptoms of PTSD following their original
journey to duty. The personnel developed these symptoms because of the nature of the war
environment that they were exposed. The symptoms of PTSD might include flashbacks,
nightmares, as well as grave anxiety plus unmanageable thoughts concerning the war events. In
their struggle to cope with the traumatic events, the personnel engaged in diverse behaviors, like
substance abused that led to a discharge of other than honorable (OTH). Over a third of veterans
currently struggle to access mental health services within the VA systems despite a huge
prevalence of PTSD (Jackson, 2017).
Therefore, the gap in access to mental health services was produced by the Department
of Veteran’s Affairs (VA) created it a necessity that the veterans get either a respectable or
general discharge to qualify for the mental health services. This created a barrier towards access
to quality mental health care for the veterans in the US. In addition, another barrier that resulted
in gap in the access to mental health services was the long-wait lists because of shortage of
mental health service providers, poor scheduling practices, as well as challenges concerned to
transitioning from active duty care to veteran’s health systems (Cheney et al., 2018).
Impact of Socioeconomic Background

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Many veterans are currently facing challenges in receiving care they need because there
is lack of resources that could be used to support their mental care services. Unlike the civilians,
their socioeconomic cannot allow them to access quality services that could help them to live
positively with the civilians. The resources are not voluntarily obtainable in many VA hospitals
plus health organizations because of the scarcity of decisive mental health staff, as well as the
universal lack of support handling the crisis-intervention matters. Consequently, veterans who do
not depend mainly on the Veteran Affairs healthcare delivery system to deal with their mental
health requirements once they come back home from the war do not have easy admission to vital
crisis-intervention services. Additionally, since most of the veterans do not have steady income,
the present gap in access to mental health services will create more problems, such as substance
abuse, and will eventually result in death (Hester, 2017).
Affect
Thus, the struggles for the veterans to access quality mental health services after multiple
deployments has resulted in many suicidal behaviors, particularly amongst young military
veterans. The current gap in access to mental health services has affected the lives of the
veterans. The current inequality in access to care have worsened the physical health conditions of
the veterans and if untreated, they may lead to considerable decreases in quality of life, job
outcomes, family relationships, as well as general health. The gap in the way care is delivered to
veterans has resulted in suicidal behaviors (Barnes, Walter & Chard, 2012). Additionally, the
veterans could not access the mental health services since the VA does not offer the needed
support to access care as seen in the long wait lists. This created a barrier towards access to

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quality mental health care for the veterans in the US. In addition, another barrier that resulted in
gap in the access to mental health services was the long-wait lists because of shortage of mental
health service providers, poor scheduling practices, as well as challenges concerned to
transitioning from active duty care to veteran’s health systems (Brenner, Vanderploeg, & Terrio,
2009).
Implications
The current gap in accessing the mental health care services has created many problems
among the veterans in the US. It is apparent that the growing gain in access of mental health
services will worsen PTSD and resulted in more suicide cases among the veterans. Many
veterans will likely to commit suicide because they are not able to access quality health services.
The other problem that I predict is the case where many veterans will be homeless. The current
situations will worsen and that the veterans will not be able to cope and will likely to become
homeless (Hester, 2017).
Conclusions
The gap in equity related to mental healthcare access for veterans is a growing problem
that needs to be addressed at an earlier stage and help the veterans to live a comfortable life and
reduce cases of suicide. The government needs to address the gap in equity access by developing
more programs to handle the growing numbers of the veterans.

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References
Barnes, S, Walter, K & Chard, K. (2012). Does a history of mild traumatic brain injury increase
suicide risk in veterans with PTSD? Rehabil Psychol. 57(1): 18–26.
Brenner, L. A, Vanderploeg, R.D. & Terrio, H. (2009). Assessment and diagnosis of mild
traumatic brain injury, posttraumatic stress disorder, and other polytrauma conditions:
burden of adversity hypothesis. Rehabil Psychol. 54(3):239–46.
Cheney, A. M., Koenig, C. J., Miller, C. J., Zamora, K., Wright, P., Stanley, R. & Pyne, J. M.
(2018). Veteran-centered barriers to VA mental healthcare services use. BMC health
services research, 18(1), 591.
Hester R. D. (2017). Lack of access to mental health services contributing to the high suicide
rates among veterans. International journal of mental health systems, 11(1): 47-51.
Jackson, G.S. (2017). The future of the affordable care act and insurance coverage. Am J Public
Health. 107(4):538–540.