Reintegration Issues Facing Returning Veterans Caring for Veterans with Post-Deployment Health Concerns: Past, Present and Future

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Reintegration Issues Facing Returning
VeteransCaring for Veterans with
Post-Deployment Health Concerns Past, Present
and Future

• Ron Teichman, MD, MPH, FACP, FACOEM
• Associate Director Clinical, Education and Risk
  Communication
• War Related Illness and Injury Study Center
• VA New Jersey Health Care System East Orange, NJ

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We have learned

• Veterans need help learning to access the VA
  system
• What services are available
• How to register
• VA not only for the seriously wounded
• Who can help

3
We have learned

• The VA needs help understanding this cohort of
  Veterans
• Very consumer savvy population Think
  Nordstroms not K-Mart
• Print is out texting, podcasting, YouTube,
  Facebook are in

4
We have learned

• There is still a huge stigma attached to asking
  for mental health evaluations and services
• Difficulties with concentration and memory are
  common
• Young and beginning life and careers, including
  law enforcement
• Tough to ask for help in the best of
  circumstances
• Including a MH evaluation removes the stigma

5
We have learned

• New Veterans dont know what they are entitled to
  and they dont/wont read large stacks of print
  material
• They were given information at a time and in a
  setting that was not conducive to their receiving
  the information
• They werent told via their media of choice

6
We have learned

• REINTEGRATION is a tremendous issue for these
  Veterans and many are struggling mightily with
  it.
• Physical and mental health
• Support systems
• Communications
• Financial and employment issues
• Educational options
• Legal problems
• Driving difficulties

7
We have learned

• Our multi-disciplinary comprehensive clinical
  evaluation, which focuses on the individual
  Veteran can be
• Rehabilitative
• Normalizing
• Reassuring
• Therapeutic

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The bottom line

• The DoD spends a great deal of time and effort on
  training these men and women to behave a certain
  way in order to survive in a combat theater. They
  are then returned to their civilian lives with no
  training on how to transition back into a setting
  where many of those same life saving behaviors,
  impulses and reflexes are inappropriate, illegal
  or even hazardous.

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• Think about driving skills
• Think about walking down the street and noticing
  people watching you
• Think about being at work or school and remaining
  focused on the same task for a protracted period
  of time without allowing peripheral events to
  distract you

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• We do not come home from war.
• We come home with war.

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• Thank you