Creating a Culture of Diversity Healthcare for Veterans

Creating Diversity
Elder Veterans and Health Care Services
The focus of my dissertation is toward the aged American population, particularly the elderly veterans. I will be considering the type and quality of care they receive for the remainder of their old age. Currently, there are programs and health services targeted toward that group. I am interested in the approaches and activities of such programs and other similar programs that might need to be implemented through congressional deliberation and approval. Gerontology is receiving significant attention from researchers in the American space due to the steady incline of the aged American population.
Through the evaluation of certain tendencies within the group of elderly veterans, intervention measures can be provided. Known risk-factors within this group include mental illnesses and war-related disabilities/amputations, which are potential triggers for suicidal behavior/tendency with increasing age (Reid, 2018). Also, there is an increasing sense of hopelessness associated with the care facilities/provisions for the elderly American population. The concept of the American dream at that stage of life has significantly been altered and replaced with an uneasiness about affording the cost of housing, health care, and other necessities.
The aged veterans, who are a significant minority of this group, are even more vulnerable. It is on the premise of advising on this inconvenient situation that this research work is based. This research considers that the United States government can ensure proper social welfare for these sets of individuals that served its purpose during their youth. The limitation is, however, in the aspect of insight into the lived experiences and expectations of this group. Be it the Gulf or Afghanistan war; there is a significant mental and physical toll of war and military occupation on soldiers. These conditions of instability tend to worsen with increasing age, as is likely in veterans of the WWII, Korean, and Vietnam military occupations. Given the diversity of modern care delivery, design, and intervention programs, the lack of adequate care services/programs for our veterans (of any war) is considered unacceptable.
To consider a care design for our veterans, the first step is to understand them and their interests. These groups of individuals are old-fashioned/conservative, relative to recent views and ideas, and this is easily identified in their communication, attitude to rules and commands, values, etc. However, besides military culture, this group has other negative commonalities: post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD), drug addiction and abuse, mental disorders, brain damage, and other major traumas (Olenick, Flowers, & Diaz, 2015).
This evidence of behavior degradation, or its tendency, was inferred from medical histories and details of individuals belonging to this group (Olenick et al., 2015). However, while the intervention of the United States government in the matter of welfare for US Veterans is the main goal of this research, the conversations and comments of people via NCU commons are taken into consideration. The trend in the conversations seeks to present diversity as existing in various forms.
The context is found, through investigation, to be dependent on so many factors: racial-ethnicity, religion, culture/cultural expectations, etc. The topics also varied across themes: ethnic minority, diversity, and variability of emotional experiences, religious backgrounds, education, etc. Along with the presentation of the inconvenient truth about the lives of US veterans in their old age, there were also discussions on the possibility of a solution(s) to the earlier introduced problem.
One of the proposed pathways includes the exploration of neuropsychology. It is expected that there should be a significant neuropsychological distinction within a diverse group. The exploration of neuropsychology for this specific target population is hypothesized to yield significant outcomes for interventions and optimal care structures. The aspect of mental health research can also be considered. This subject is especially important due to current ideas about the mental challenges that war veterans suffer.
Specifically, for the aged veteran group, research can be directed to finding the best approaches to improving mental health awareness and intervention activities for those suffering from one or more mental illnesses. A more interesting group to be considered under such a research approach are the individuals with complexities in their medical activities and behavior (Reid, 2018). At the curriculum level, these kinds of studies may be incorporated into professional certifications for corresponding caregivers.
A better approach includes such care and intervention techniques within degree courses at undergraduate and postgraduate study levels: tagged veteran content. The aim will be to equip the next sets of care and social work professionals with the rights skills to deal with veterans of different war eras. This can also be considered in a practical setting through the identification of veterans of various war eras, military engagements, and experience, and providing students with clinical experience: providing the required care. Finally, the introduction of simulated scenarios for practicing ahead of practical engagements can be beneficial for students in this wise (Olenick et al., 2015). However, all these approaches are subject to being considered as research questions. Are they possible to implement, and at what difficulty?
It is essential to generalize the context of veteran-specific care across various health outfits and training programs, as veterans have been known to seek help outside of the Veteran Health Administration. Having a cross-sector introduction to veteran care will ensure that veterans receive optimal care, irrespective of where they seek such care. The main elements to be emphasized across training is on the complexities of health and mental issues associated with this group, as well as their behavior adjustment disorders. Various occupations suggested that incorporating veteran care includes nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, pain management, mental health management, social work, etc. Integrating veteran care into all these professional care outfits will ensure a better living outcome and management of potential physical or mental war inflicted disabilities (Olenick et al., 2015).
The Veteran Health Administration system is already in the lead with the design of veteran-specific care programs. These programs are implemented nationwide and are optimized for handling the complexity that comes with veteran care. While this is an excellent initiative, it is evident that widespread adoption across multiple platforms may not be guaranteed. This kind of limitation usually exists when the peculiarity of a novel/innovative idea is not considered before pushing for a generalized adoption (Taylor et al., 2019). In the case of veteran care, its unique challenges for widespread adoption include things like “integration of veteran care into general health care curriculum, dissemination of training guides across health facilities to ensure its application by caregivers, funding of independent/group research on veteran care and ways to improve its outcomes, etc.”; finally, implementation is not as difficult as maintenance.
As seen in the activities of the Veteran Health Administration (VHA), the overall limitation to deployment can be significantly reduced through a network of organizations/groups that can individually handle each of the identified limitations to the program. This kind of network is the Veteran Health Administration Innovators Network (VHAIN), which facilitates funding, program champions, VHA employees, and other necessary contributions to ensure the successful deployment of programs by the VHA (Veterans Health Administration Organizational Excellence, 2018).
Conclusion
Ensuring that veterans have access to the best form of care is an expectation and obligation on the part of the motherland they have dutifully served. This can be better achieved through research and corresponding targeted care systems that address the mental and other peculiar aspects of veteran care. Trends like the attitudes of this group of individuals (the aged veterans) to life and health, their ideologies, the disposition to caregivers, and social welfare, should be adequately considered in any effective design approach. Overall, a successful veteran care program is one that truly caters to veterans (irrespective of their relative peculiarities).
References
Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2017). Does diversity actually increase creativity? Retrieved from: https://hbr.org/2017/06/does-diversity-actually-increase-creativity
Feldman, S., Dickins, M., Browning, C., & DeSoysa, T. (2015). The health and service needs of older veterans: a qualitative analysis. Health Expect, 18(6), 2202-2212. DOI: 10.1111/hex.12190
Olenick, M., Flowers, M., & Diaz, V. (2015). US veterans and their unique issues: enhancing health care professional awareness. Adv Med Educ Pract, 6, 635-639. DOI: 10.2147/AMEP.S89479
Reid, S. (2018). Helping our older veterans. Retrieved from: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2018/12/job-karel
Taylor, S. L., Bolton, R., Huynh, A., Dvorin, K., Elwy, A., Kliger, B., Bokhour, B. G. (2019). What should health care systems consider when implementing complementary and integrative health: Lessons from Veterans Health Administration. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 25, S52-S60. DOI:10.1089/acm.2018.0445.
Veterans Health Administration Organizational Excellence. (2018). What’s the forecast for VA innovation in 2018? Retrieved from: www.va.gov/HEALTHCAREEXCELLENCE/diffusion-of-excellence/articles/innovation-forecast-2018.asp.