Existing initiatives, such as those promoted by the American Public Health Association and the Department of Veterans Affairs, aim to provide medical benefits to military personnel who have been dismissed or withdrawn from service. Intervention, mental health as a complete component of medical care, accountability in welfare programs, and non-discriminatory inclusion of all mental treatment for veterans are the arguments and solutions addressed by the organizations (U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, 2022). As a result, the American Public Health Association and the Department of Veterans Affairs collaborated to develop a set of recommendations to expand the amount of support and assistance available.
It is possible to highlight human development, education, and technology deployment as particular goals of the existing initiative in place to define this gap in access. The Department of Veterans Affairs is attempting to modify the level of qualifying for health and mental health treatments in order to expand coverage (U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, 2022). Another goal of the program is to boost healthcare worker retention by reducing compassion stress and burnout, which hinders their capacity to offer appropriate care to vulnerable populations.
Considering the circumstances around the development of the existing initiative, it is possible to emphasize more than a decade of development. In 2011, the Department of Veterans Affairs offered specialist mental health treatment to almost 1.3 million service members suffering from psychological health disorders (U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, 2022). With extended clinic hours, telehealth mental competence to deliver treatments and criteria that guarantee timely access to mental health care, the institution has improved availability (U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, 2022). On several mental health policies and programs, it collaborated tightly with the Department of Defense (U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, 2022). Hence, the development of the initiative was connected to technological growth and enhanced access to innovations.
Personnel and competent people are the first type of resources required. Emotional exhaustion and burnout among healthcare personnel who provide services to a vulnerable group must be reduced. As a result, a persistent lack of non-human and human factors that could facilitate the delivery of successful treatments is attributed to gaps in psychological healthcare access. The initiative’s main form of capability is financial resources, which are required for the program’s efficient execution. Due to severe financial struggles, the population faces not only mental health issues but also substance abuse, addiction, and higher death rates (Williamson et al., 2018). As a result, increasing mental health coverage in current healthcare plans should solve the issue of low-income veterans being unable to access adequate therapy. Financial funding from the Department of Veteran Affairs is vital since it permits academic research on moral damage, military structure, and military trauma to be funded.
Due to the fact that veterans would have to raise their financial spending on treatments and services, the measures that have been established and applied do not satisfy the needed improvement. Since it is not possible to cover all military members for free, the Department of Veterans Affairs plan must be improved. The program is constrained by a shortage of employees and high turnover rates owing to compassion fatigue. In addition, the existing initiative focuses solely on veterans, frequently disregarding the significant impact the healthcare gap has on their families and environment. Even though many services have been established to help military people adapt to civilian life, there are comparatively few options available for spouses, children, and extended family systems (Sherman & Larsen, 2018). This issue needs substantial financial assistance to guarantee that veterans obtain the degree of mental healthcare coverage. Moreover, the problem is not well-publicized, making it difficult for veterans to learn about it and make use of the resources provided to them.
References
Sherman, M. D., & Larsen, J. L. (2018). Family-focused interventions and resources for veterans and their families. Psychological Services, 15(2), 146–153. Web.
U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. (2022). Veterans and mental health. Web.
Williamson, V., Stevelink, S. A., Greenberg, K., & Greenberg, N. (2018). Prevalence of mental health disorders in elderly US military veterans: a meta-analysis and systematic review. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 26(5), 534-545. Web.