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Treating OEF/OF Veterans

Decent Essays

Rising to the Challenge of Treating OEF/OIF Veterans with Co-Occurring PTSD and Substance Abuse
Research Brief
Article Citation: Bernhardt, A. (2009). Rising to the challenge of treating OEF/OIF veterans with co‐occurring PTSD and substance abuse. Smith College Studies in Social Work, 79(3-4), 344-367.
Key Words: Trauma, Addiction, Engagement, and Integrated Treatment
Target Audience: Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) Veterans, the Entire veteran population in general (this includes combat and non-combat veterans), policy makers on the federal, state, and community levels, veteran advocates, social workers, and the general population (Community).
Abstract: In the United States, soldiers are returning home from war …show more content…

Integrated treatment programs along with evidence supporting its effectiveness are later brought up in this article, along with recent policy changes from the Department of Veteran Affairs predicting future positive outcomes of PTSD/SUD treatment.
Implications: This section includes the following three sections –
a. Practice: This article first identifies the scope of the problem, followed by the effect of dual diagnosis on treatment outcome, followed by how individual PTSD treatments work and how they view substance abuse, followed by addressing the problems with sequential treatment of PTSD/SUD, lastly addressing the integrated treatment approaches. These implications are supported by empirical data collected from various studies.
b. Policy: Policy reform will require federal leadership to engage health plans, professional organizations, states, and local communities in strategies to improve veterans’ access to high-quality services (Burnam et. al, 2009). Bernhardt (2009) claims that there needs to be leadership at the highest levels of administration within the VA in order to inflict meaningful change for PTSD/SUD …show more content…

Future Research: Effective treatments for PTSD and depression exist, yet there are disparities in how these treatments are being geographically/regionally dispersed. Above, we highlighted key challenges: veterans’ perceptions of the negative consequences of seeking care; inadequate availability of mental health professionals; diverse and often competing mental health specialties and training approaches that inadequately prepare many practitioners to deliver evidence-based treatments for combat-related disorders or to understand military experience (Burnam et. al, 2009); and limited dissemination and implementation of QI strategies in mental health care settings . Overcoming these obstacles will require federal, state, and local leadership.
Since there is no reported data or analyses to help the nation or specific regions and communities assess veterans’ needs for services by geographic area, and to plan for and coordinate service delivery across community-based, TRICARE, and VHA resources; we purpose several general directions for moving forward (Burnam et. al, 2009). The general directions for moving forward include a need for confidentiality, consumer education, treatment choices, workforce policy, training and certification, QI needs, and technical assistance to the

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