Publication year
2017
Citation Title
Perspectives of veterans with mild traumatic brain injury on community reintegration: Making sense of unplanned separation from service.
Journal Name
American Journal of Orthopsychiatry
Journal Volume
87
Issue Number
2
Page Numbers
129-138
DOI
10.1037/ort0000253
Summary
Many military members struggle with the reintegration into civilian life, especially when this transition was unplanned due to mild traumatic brain injury. This study interviewed eight Veterans with mild traumatic brain injuries to better understand their experiences of leaving the military and reentering civilian life. Some participants reported the need to distance themselves from their military identity while others felt they needed to maintain their military identity throughout civilian life. All participants perceived reintegration as a crisis equal to that of their injury.
Key Findings
Veterans viewed their relationship with the military as a relationship that consists of acculturation, service, and training, but they were also regretful because of the separation due to their injury.
Veterans viewed their relationship with the civilian community as one of misunderstanding in that that civilians do not fully understand the military.
Veterans viewed their relationship with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as mixed; some Veterans felt frustrated that civilian VA health care providers could not understand their experience, while others strongly defended the bond between Veterans and the VA.
Implications for Program Leaders
Develop workshops that help engage family members in actively supporting Service members who will soon reintegrate into civilian life
Provide information for families and civilians about the crisis of unplanned reintegration for Service members
Disseminate information for Service members on ways to cope with the reintegration process
Implications for Policy Makers
Continue to support programs that address the challenges Service members encounter during reintegration
Recommend education of professionals who work with military families on the possible effects reintegration into civilian life has on Service members and their families
Promote reintegration programs that aid in assisting Service members to successfully adjust to employment in the civilian sector
Methods
Participants were recruited from a sample of Veterans participating in a focus group and additional Veterans were recruited who were not in the focus group.
The interviews used a person-focused method that emphasized the perception of the Veterans' rather than their objective experiences.
All of the interviews were audio recorded and transcribed by two researchers, and each interview lasted up to one hour long.
Participants
This study consisted of eight Veterans who were between 28 and 47 years of age.
Of the participants, six served in the Army, one in the Navy, and one in the Air Force.
Participants were six males and two females, seven of the participants were White and one was Black.
Limitations
This study only interviewed eight Veterans and the sample size for this population is too small to make this study generalizeable to the larger population.
There was a wide age gap among some of the participants, which may mean differences between generation-based reintegration experiences and this was not accounted for in this study.
All of the Veterans were served by and recruited from a single Polytrauma Network Site, which may have introduced bias in the recruitment and selection of the sample.
Avenues for Future Research
Explore the relationship between a traumatic injury and the ability to transitioning and integrating identities in the civilian world among Service members
Examine the perceptions of role identity in community reintegration among Service members and their families
Identify the factors that make transitioning to civilian life more difficult for some Service members while not increasing difficulties for other Service members
Focus
Multiple Branches
Target Population
Population Focus
Military Component
Abstract
For veterans separated from the military as a result of acquired mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), the transition from a military identity to a civilian one is complicated by health, cognitive, and psychosocial factors. We conducted in-depth interviews with 8 veterans with mTBI to understand how they perceived the experience of departure from the military, rehabilitation services provided at a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Polytrauma Network Site, and reentry into civilian life. Two distinct patterns of thinking about community reintegration emerged. The first pattern was characterized by the perception of a need to fade one's military identity. The second pattern, conversely, advanced the perception of a need to maintain the integrity of one's military identity though living in a civilian world. These perceptions may be linked to individuals' roles while in the military and whether violent acts were committed in carrying out the mission of service, acts not consonant with positive self-appraisal in the civilian world. The crisis of unplanned, involuntary separation from the military was universally perceived as a crisis equal to that of the precipitating injury itself. The perception that civilians lacked understanding of veterans' military past and their current transition set up expectations for interactions with health care providers, as well as greatly impacting relationships with friend and family. Our veterans' shared perceptions support existing mandates for greater dissemination of military culture training to health care providers serving veterans both at VA and military facilities as well as in the civilian community at large.
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