NU416M3 Factors That Influence Chronic Illness: PTSD in Veterans

This presentation provides an overview of PTSD in veterans, highlighting the programs and services offered by the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs in Texas. It discusses factors influencing veterans' mental health needs, such as substance abuse, traumatic brain injuries, and lack of social support. The presentation details the eligibility criteria for veterans to receive healthcare services, covering financial assessments, income verification, and the role of private healthcare insurance. It also addresses the adequacy of current services, noting the increasing need for PTSD assistance and the limitations of existing facilities, and offers recommendations for improving veteran healthcare, including increasing the number of facilities, government funding for PTSD treatment, and publishing reports on treatment effectiveness. The presentation references several studies and articles to support its claims and recommendations.

VETERANS’ HEALTHCARE
SERVICES- PTSD
Presented By…

Overview
• PTSD is a psychiatric condition that befalls people who have experienced disturbing
events like natural tragedies, serious accidents, extremist acts, war, rape cases and
other forceful personal assault (Andreasen, 2011).
• PTSD is characterized by flashbacks about past events, nightmares, anxiety, and
uncontainable thoughts (distress) of the frightening events that have happened in past.
• Such kind of people requires special handling for them to recover from such traumatic
memories.
• There are a number of programs and services offered by the Department of Defense
and other non-government organizations like Veterans Affairs to assist such kind of
people (veterans) in Texas.

Programs and services offered to veterans with PTSD
 These programs and services are groups into three main categories i.e. pre-deployment, post-
deployment, and post-deployment health reassessment in which veterans receive services like
treatment, counseling, group therapy, individual and family therapy among other under
programs like:
Wounded Warrior programs
Army stress reset programs
Residential PTSD treatment programs
Civilian partial hospitalization programs
Outpatient treatment programs

Factors influencing veterans
need for mental health services
 A number of factors have been linked to veterans need for mental health services. Usually, these factors
affect the normal functioning of the veteran brain making them be upset by past events. Such factors
include:
 Drug and substance abuse (IOM, 2014).
 Traumatic brain injuries and events (sexual trauma in which according to VA 1out of 4 women and 1 out
of 100 men have experienced sexual trauma.)
 Neurological problems (if such disorder has ever happened in childhood 77%)
 Little or no social support after the traumatic events have occurred (Brewin et al, 2000)
 Nonwhite race
 Longer deployment periods in traumatic places.

How is the veteran evaluated?
The active service members are eligible if they:
 Anticipate to be given an honorable (this excludes those who are to receive
dishonorably)
 Attain a rating of not less than 20% from the Department of Veterans Affairs
 Have applied for the VR&E services
 Or
 Have severe injuries that prevent them from performing active military
duties
 Have submitted an application for the VR&E services

Eligibility of the Veterans
Have been discharged due to other factors other than
dishonorable
Have an ill health ranking of 10% from the Veteran
Affairs
Have applied for the services

Evaluation
After the basic requirements of the veteran are met, an arrangement is made for
further evaluation of the veteran done by Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor to
determine the veteran’s eligibility of the service (Seal et al, 2009).
The evaluation entails
Assessing the interest and abilities of the veteran
To assess the veteran on whether the veteran’s disabilities affect the ability
to find or hold a job.

Cost of service
Majority of the veterans receive healthcare services at absolutely zero fees basing on the policies set
by the VA department.
Copay
Not all veterans are eligible for receiving free health care depending on the individuals’ status (Heiss
and McMahon, 2012).
Those who don’t qualify for free treatment will be required to pay a copay.
Before a veteran becomes eligible for receiving free health care, he/she must undergo a financial
assessment while enrolling for the service.
This process is done in order to verify whether the veteran is eligible for enrollment and for free
medical services.
There is a set VA standard of which the veteran’s gross household shouldn’t exceed for him or her to
qualify for free healthcare. If the veteran’s income limit supersedes the standard VA’s limit, then the
veteran should pay a copay to receive the healthcare services.

Cost of service cont…
 Financial Assessment & Income Verification
Those veterans are not receiving Veteran Authority disability compensation or pensions
must proceed on financial assessment to determine their credibility on whether to receive
free VA healthcare.
 Private healthcare insurance
Copay is an added expense to the ailing veteran. To help reduce this burden, private
insurance is provided which helps in paying the copays. Veterans having health
assurance can decide on using this cover to enhance their VA benefits. Having a private
insurance cover doesn’t bar one from enjoying VA services.

Adequacy of services
 Study from the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs revealed that the number of veterans who are in need of
PTSD assistance is increasing at a very high rate as compared to the facilities that are in existence.
 There are few government mental health facilities to accommodate the ever-growing number of veterans.
 This has led to veterans being referred to general mental health care facilities where veterans who need special
attention are disadvantaged.
 The facility that is there does not have enough bed for veterans to receive in-patient treatment thus forcing them to
be attended to in out-patient manner (IOM, 2014).
 The inadequacy of facilities has led to veterans who need special attention being referred to other non-governmental
mental health care for help.
 There is very little experienced expertise to handle veterans in the general mental hospitals that veterans are referred
to.


Recommendations
 Following the inadequacy of better services to veterans, there is a need to
increase the number of facilities and also introduce more advanced.
 The government should fund PTSD treatment activities to enable them to get
better services.
 The Department of Defense should equip itself with adequate and more facilities
so as to avoid referring patients to general mental hospitals where effectiveness
have not yet been confirmed.
 Also, reports about veterans PTSD treatment should be published so as to enable
the public to get the picture of the effectiveness of the services offered to their
beloved members.

References
Andreasen, N. C. (2011). What is post-traumatic stress disorder?. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience, 13(3),
240.
Brewin C, Andrews B, Valentine J. Meta-analysis of risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder in trauma
exposed adults. J of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 2000;68:748–766.
Heiss, C., & McMahon, S. M. (2012). Veterans and the ACA: How Health Reform Boosts Eligibility for VA
Health Care..
IOM (Institute of Medicine). 2014. Treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder in military and veteran
populations: Final assessment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Seal, K. H., Metzler, T. J., Gima, K. S., Bertenthal, D., Maguen, S., & Marmar, C. R. (2009). Trends and risk
factors for mental health diagnoses among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans using Department of Veterans
Affairs health care, 2002–2008. American journal of public health, 99(9), 1651-1658.