Evaluation of the Department of Veterans Affairs Mental Health Services

Evaluation of the Department of Veterans Affairs Mental Health Services
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 467
Release: 2018-03-29
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309466601

Approximately 4 million U.S. service members took part in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Shortly after troops started returning from their deployments, some active-duty service members and veterans began experiencing mental health problems. Given the stressors associated with war, it is not surprising that some service members developed such mental health conditions as posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and substance use disorder. Subsequent epidemiologic studies conducted on military and veteran populations that served in the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq provided scientific evidence that those who fought were in fact being diagnosed with mental illnesses and experiencing mental healthâ€"related outcomesâ€"in particular, suicideâ€"at a higher rate than the general population. This report provides a comprehensive assessment of the quality, capacity, and access to mental health care services for veterans who served in the Armed Forces in Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn. It includes an analysis of not only the quality and capacity of mental health care services within the Department of Veterans Affairs, but also barriers faced by patients in utilizing those services.

Veterans Access to Mental Health Care

Veterans Access to Mental Health Care
Author: Edgar W. Schneider
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016
Genre: Veterans
ISBN: 9781634851954

Between 2005 and 2013, the number of veterans receiving mental health care from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Health Administration (VHA) increased 63 percent, outpacing overall growth in veterans receiving any VHA health care. In fiscal year 2014, VHA spent more than $3.9 billion providing outpatient specialty mental health care (mental health care) to more than 1.5 million veterans. This book examines, among other things, veterans access to timely mental health care, and VHAs related oversight.