How Veterans are Challenged
According to Department of Veterans Affairs’ statistics, over 5,100,000 veterans used VA health care in FY 2008. Of those, more than 1,100,000 veterans were treated in the VA Mental Health System. And, a significant number of those veterans entered residential treatment programs for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), substance abuse, homelessness and related mental illnesses.
While in the VA medical system, these veterans received treatment for PTSD or the knowledge and skills to abstain from drug and alcohol abuse.
Yet many still lacked the concrete skills necessary to bridge the chasm between completing treatment and successfully re-entering the community.
Due to the length and severity of their illnesses, many veterans lost or never developed the skills to manage the routine but real “everyday” challenges of paying rent, acquiring employment, finding transportation or managing money. These stressors, when not managed properly or constructively, often overwhelm what insights and skills the veterans learned in treatment.
Unfortunately, despite the number of clinical VA resources available after treatment (such as medical support, social work resources, vocational rehabilitation, in-home visits, aftercare and possibly even subsidized housing through grant and per diem programs) many veterans are over-whelmed by the very real, immediate and concrete day-to-day issues and, as a result, fail in thier attempt to regain a normal life or relapse.
In fact, historically, approximately 50 percent of those who complete substance abuse treatment will relapse within the first 90 days.
While it was not their intention to fail or relapse when they entered treatment, many veterans find that the lifestyle after treatment requires them to use skills they never had or to manage stressors they had never encountered before. For many, the immediate consequences of giving up or relapse are less than the cumulative challenges of everyday living!