Post-Deployment Difficulties and Help Seeking Barriers Among Military Veterans

Given the dramatic rates of mental health concerns among military veterans, more needs to be done to connect wounded warriors to the resources available to them. Through focus groups with veterans of the Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and/or Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) conflicts (N 30) we sought to understand the current post-deployment difficulties, barriers to seeking mental health care, and possible intervention methods for reducing those barriers. Post-deployment difficulties involved troubles relating to others, psychological difficulties, and behavioral or physical problems. Help-seeking barriers included stigma and concerns about the therapy process. Participants’ perspectives on ways to reduce those barriers to seeking help have implications for clinicians’ approach to therapy and outreach with veterans and can inform the development of larger-scale intervention efforts that could be tested through future research.