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 “The most significant finding was that 26 percent of veterans who
were separated for misconduct-related reasons were homeless at their
first VA encounter; and this number climbed to 28 percent within one
year after their first VA encounter,” said lead author Dr. Adi V.
Gundlapalli of the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System.
“Collectively, these results represent the strongest risk factor for
homelessness among U.S. veterans observed to date, and may help to
explain the higher risk of homelessness observed among veterans,
despite access to VA benefits and services,” Gundlapalli told
Reuters Health by email.
The researchers used data on 448,290 U.S. active-duty military
service members who were separated from the military between 2001
and 2011, deployed in Afghanistan or Iraq, and who subsequently used
Veterans Health Administration services.
Service members who separate from the military have Department of
Defense codes attributing the separation to misconduct including
drugs, alcoholism, offenses and infraction, disability, early
release, disqualified, normal, or unknown.
Almost 25,000 of the people in the database had been separated for
misconduct, less than six percent of the total group.
Within five years, 3,441 people had become homeless, accounting for
about two percent of the total sample.
At the five-year point, almost 10 percent of the veterans discharged
for misconduct were homeless, compared to less than two percent of
those coded as “normal” separation, the researchers reported in the
Journal of the American Medical Association.
Military discharge and subsequent transition to civilian living has
long been associated with homelessness and poor mental health,
according to James Taylor, a lecturer at the School of Health
Sciences at the University of Stirling in the Scotland.
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“The symptoms of poor mental health, for example, can manifest as,
or be a reason for, perceived misconduct,” Taylor, who was not part
of the new study, told Reuters Health by email.
Poor mental health, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic
brain injury (TBI), alcohol or drug problems might all be involved
in misconduct and risk of homelessness, he said.
According to Taylor, the key to addressing veteran homelessness is
to “ensure a successful transition from military service back to
civilian living, where there are good social contacts and networks
(not all military based), strong marital and family support, access
to work and meaningful employment.”
The VA has many active programs in place to identify veterans at
risk and offer them appropriate services, including alcohol or
substance abuse treatment, mental health disorder management, case
management, and housing services, Gundlapalli said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1KKfUCR Journal of the American Medical
Association, online August 25, 2015.
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