Gender Differences in Veterans' Mental Health Care Utilization
This literature review examines whether gender affects the utilization of VA (Veterans Affairs) mental health care services among military veterans. Drawing on more than a decade of research, the paper explores the documented need for mental health care among veterans returning from conflict zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan, the signs that indicate when intervention is needed, and how the growing inclusion of women in the military has affected service utilization patterns. The review also considers factors such as rank hierarchy, demographic characteristics, ethnic background, and women's own reluctance to seek care. Cost comparisons between male and female veterans are analyzed, and the paper concludes that both genders require equitable, high-quality mental health support, with particular attention needed for women veterans navigating dual responsibilities at home and in service.
- Introduction: Gender, deployment, and VA mental health care framing
- The Need for Mental Health Care Among Military Veterans: Evidence for growing veteran mental health care demand
- Signs That VA Mental Health Intervention Is Needed: PTSD, depression, and alcohol as intervention indicators
- Women's Military Inclusion and VA Service Utilization: Women's higher outpatient use and pain prevalence findings
- Factors Affecting VA Mental Health Care Utilization by Gender: Hierarchy, demographics, and women's reluctance as barriers
- Cost Differences in VA Mental Health Care by Gender: Minimal overall cost difference between male and female veterans
- Conclusion: Call for equitable, high-quality VA care for all genders
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What makes this paper effective
- Organizes a multi-source literature review into clearly labeled thematic subsections, making it easy to trace how each study relates to the central research question.
- Consistently closes each paragraph with an explicit relevance statement linking the cited study back to the paper's thesis, reinforcing argumentative coherence throughout.
- Balances quantitative findings (cost comparisons, PTSD prevalence rates) with qualitative factors (hierarchy, reluctance, demographics), giving the review both empirical weight and contextual depth.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective use of the annotated synthesis technique: rather than simply summarizing each source in isolation, the author explains how each study contributes evidence to a common thesis about gender-based disparities in VA care. The recurring phrase "this study is similar to the selected topic here since…" functions as an explicit connective strategy, a technique useful for undergraduate literature reviews where making the argument visible is as important as presenting the evidence.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a framing introduction that establishes the problem and thesis. The body is organized into five thematic sections: the general need for VA mental health care, indicators for intervention, gender-based service utilization patterns, contributory factors (hierarchy, demographics, reluctance), and cost differentials. A concluding section synthesizes key findings and calls for policy attention. The structure follows a classic funnel pattern—broad context narrowing to specific variables—appropriate for a literature review at the undergraduate level.
Introduction
The career decisions a person makes can have lifelong effects on both their own life and the lives of their family members. Deployment — a defining reality of military careers — can sometimes cause serious harm to a service member's mental health and family relationships (Brooks & Chopik, 2020). For example, a soldier deployed to a war zone may return with lasting mental health consequences, including stress, depression, and excessive alcohol use. The intensity of trauma may increase if a diagnosis is not made in time and can lead to family problems such as divorce, social dysfunction, substance abuse, difficulties in future employment, legal complications, and physical health troubles.
Recently, women's inclusion in nearly all areas of life has grown substantially, and the military is no exception. It is generally observed that women require outpatient health care services more frequently than men for minor illnesses, and the same holds true for reproductive health and depression care. As a result, per-person medical costs for women tend to be higher than for men overall.
When women are deployed to conflict zones, medical costs may be even higher — particularly outpatient and pharmacy costs — due to resulting mental health problems, even though women's overall military health costs may remain lower than those of men. Understanding how VA (Veterans Affairs) mental health costs differ by gender among veterans is therefore important. The central argument of this literature review is that there is a gender difference in the utilization of health care services among veterans, specifically military women. Although women's presence in the military has grown significantly, they are often younger or belong to minority groups, and the benefits they receive relative to their male counterparts reflect persistent inequities. The sections that follow provide a literature review offering sufficient background on this topic.
The Need for Mental Health Care Among Military Veterans
Various studies have confirmed that military veterans who have served in conflict zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan require specialized mental health care. These veterans suffer severe psychological impacts from wartime conditions during their deployment years, and research consistently shows a growing number of veterans seeking mental health support.
As a result, the costs associated with mental health care visits per veteran have also risen (Harpaz-Rotem & Rosenheck, 2011). This trend includes newer veterans, for whom retention in care is especially important so that their ongoing service capacity can be maintained. This body of research affirms that military veterans need specialized VA mental health care, leaving little ambiguity on that point.
It is also accurate to assert that the negative impacts of combat environments are observed in both male and female VA military personnel, regardless of whether they have received mental health care. Depression frequently becomes part of a veteran's experience upon return and requires dedicated attention. Rates of PTSD were found to be three times higher among military veterans who had received mental health care compared to those who had not (Vaughan et al., 2014).
A key reason for such disparities may be that VA mental health care services were not fully meeting veterans' treatment needs. This gap could be narrowed by improving the quality of mental health services and increasing enrollment, given that a large population of veterans still does not have access to or use these services. Research in this area is directly relevant to the present topic, as it examines the effects of VA mental health care on both recipients and non-recipients, independent of gender.
References
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Allore, H. G., Ning, Y., Brandt, C. A., & Goulet, J. L. (2013). Accounting for the hierarchical structure in veterans' health administration data: Differences in healthcare utilization between men and women veterans. International Journal of Statistics in Medical Research, 2(2), 94–103. DOI: 10.6000/1929-6029.2013.02.02.03
Brooks, C. & Chopik, W. (2020, June 17). Research finds deployment affects mental health of veterans differently. Michigan State University.
Duggal, M., Goulet, J. L., Womack, J., Gordon, K., Mattocks, K., Haskell, S. G., Justice, A. C., & Brandt, C. A. (2010). Comparison of outpatient health care utilization among returning women and men veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq. BMC Health Services Research, 10(175). https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-10-175
Harpaz-Rotem, I. & Rosenheck, R. A. (2011). Serving those who served: Retention of newly returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan in mental health treatment. Psychiatric Services, 62(1), 22–27. DOI: 10.1176/ps.62.1.pss6201_0022
Haskell, S. G., Brandt, C. A., Krebs, E. E., Skanderson, M., Kerns, R. D., & Goulet, J. L. (2009). Pain among veterans of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom: Do women and men differ? Pain Medicine, 10(7), 1167–1173. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1526-4637.2009.00714.x
Kaur, S., Stechuchak, K. M., Coffman, C. J., Allen, K. D., & Bastian, L. A. (2007). Gender differences in health care utilization among veterans with chronic pain. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 22(2), 228–233. DOI: 10.1007/s11606-006-0048-5
Koo, K. H., Madden, E., & Maguen, S. (2015). Race, ethnicity, and gender differences in VA health care service utilization among U.S. veterans of recent conflicts. Psychiatric Services, 66(5), 507–513. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201300498
Leslie, D. L., Goulet, J., Skanderson, M., Mattocks, K., Haskell, S., & Brandt, C. (2011). Healthcare utilization and costs among male and female veterans in the year after service in Afghanistan and Iraq. Military Medicine, 176(3), 265–269.
Maguen, S., Ren, L., Bosch, J. O., Marmar, C. R., & Seal, K. H. (2010). Gender differences in mental health diagnoses among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans enrolled in Veterans Affairs health care. American Journal of Public Health, 100(12), 2450–2456. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2009.166165
Vaughan, C. A., Schell, T. L., Tanielian, T., Jaycox, L. H., & Marshall, G. N. (2014). Prevalence of mental health problems among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who have and have not received VA services. Psychiatric Services, 65(6), 833–835. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201300111
Weimer, M. B., Macey, T. A., Nicolaidis, C., Dobscha, S. K., Duckart, J. P., & Morasco, B. J. (2013). Sex differences in the medical care of VA patients with chronic non-cancer pain. Pain Medicine, 14(12), 1839–1847. https://doi.org/10.1111/pme.12177
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