Transitioning Military Life

Improved Essays
Show More
Transitioning Veterans into Civilian Life Veterans transitioning from military life into civilian life might have a hard time adjusting to their new lives when they get back. According to Demers (2010) there are three main themes that veterans might identify with when they return home. These themes are; time travelers, no one understands us, and crisis of identity (p.169). I will further explain these three themes. Demers (2010) explains that this feeling of being a “Time Traveler” is associated with returning home from war after being somewhere else so completely different in both terms of physically where they were and also returning from the mindset they were in. Demers also continues to say that it is hard for veterans to shift between …show more content…
There are many programs offered throughout the military that provide assistance for transitioning. Military One Source describes such TAPs as the Pre-separation Counseling which starts 90 days before separating from the military but can be scheduled 12 months prior to leaving. This includes things like figuring out what career to change too, identifying what resources a veteran will need to transition to civilian life, and learning about the transition services, entitlements, and benefits (Demers, 2010). Military One Source goes on to describe other Transition Assistance Programs such as One-on-One support which lets a Transition assistance staff member work one-on-one with an individual to help figure out what skills they possess and off them career advice for specific career issues. TAP also offers many workshops including the Department of Veterans Affairs benefits briefing which covers a veteran’s ability for health care, VA counseling, VA home loan programs, and other VA …show more content…
Currently the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) Mental Health Services has intervention/prevention resources that consists of; identification of risk, construction of a “safety plan,” education, training, and counseling. The resource that is utilized the greatest is the safety plan. The VA safety plan consists of: early identification of warning signs or stressors, enhancing coping strategies (e.g., to distract and support), utilizing social support contacts (discuss with whom to share the plan), contact information about access to professional help, and minimizing access to lethal means (such as, weapons and ammunition or large quantities of medication); designed to reduce previous and current risks (VA Community, n.d.). There are a few resources that are provided to the veteran population by the VA outside of standard counseling; the Veterans Crisis Line, a toll free and confidential hotline; Vet Center, a center that provides temporary counseling and referral services; and a text message service to connect with a VA

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Essay Of PTSD In The Things They Carried
    • 1722 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Essay Of PTSD In The Things They Carried

    Many after coming back from the war couldn’t adjust to the civilian life, and many state that the war shattered their lives. Many veterans felt forgotten, and unappreciated,…

    • 1722 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Analysis Of Rule Number Two: Lessons I Learned In A Combat Hospital
    • 2523 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Analysis Of Rule Number Two: Lessons I Learned In A Combat Hospital

    The United States of America has been at war since 2001. The two campaigns are known as Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraq Freedom. Since the beginning, there has been over 1.5 million troops deployed to the region (Savitsky, Illingsworth, & Dulaney, 2009). It does not matter what the job is, the chances that a soldier will experience a form of trauma is almost guaranteed. It was no different for Lieutenant Commander Heidi Kraft.…

    • 2523 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Post 9/11 Veterans Challenges
    • 337 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Post 9/11 Veterans Challenges

    When veterans return from military service, one important avenue of return to cilivan life and career is through higher education. By the year 2020, it is estimated that 5 million service members will leave the service and a large portion of them will be choosing to attend college and universities. The post 9/11 GI Bill enacted in 2009 made it much more assessable for military veterans to attend college, by enacting financial incentives that pay for tuition, textbooks and housing. Important differences in culture and perceptual perspectives exist between student veterans and college personnel. Few college students, staff, faculty, or administrators themselves have military backgrounds so they have no understanding of the challenges veterans…

    • 337 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Veterans Returning Home In Homer's The Odyssey
    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Veterans Returning Home In Homer's The Odyssey

    Veterans Returning Home “Sixty-one percent of men and 51% of women in the general population report having experienced at least one traumatic experience that qualifies to be considered for PTSD”(Kilic 409).Soldiers go to war to fight for America’s freedom and protect the citizens of America; however, many of their lives change while at war, and they are seeking treatment. Many soldiers get psychological help and many professionals are trying to find different ways to treat the soldiers’ suffering. Upon returning home, soldiers have a hard time assimilating back into civilian life. In Homer’s epic poem…

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Heroin Addiction Summary
    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Heroin Addiction Summary

    These civilians and veterans matched the following: age, region, and education at the time the veterans entered service. Second, the author utilized several evidence-based studies in the research include the following: sample from Surgeon General’s list and support from the National Opinion Research Center for interviewing, Guttman scale, and previously research done by other researchers (Robins,…

    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Night By Elie Wiesel And The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien
    • 1093 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Night By Elie Wiesel And The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    People will do anything and everything it takes to survive, and when confronted with a traumatic situation, people begin to think more about their own safety than the safety of others. With the approach of first-person narratives in both Night by Elie Wiesel and The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the reader can hear about and recount the events as they happened from the individual’s perspectives the way that those individuals experienced the events. In Night, where Elie recounts his experiences as a survivor of the Holocaust and a prisoner in multiple concentration camps, and The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, where Tim recounts his traumatic and life-changing time as a soldier in the Vietnam war, the reader is able to see events…

    • 1093 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Student Veterans College Experience: An Exploratory Study
    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Student Veterans College Experience: An Exploratory Study

    This source explores the student veteran perspective on one campus in the United States. In relation to my project this article proposes a variety of good points. The authors emphasize that student veterans from the study generally believe their military service brings forth a variety of strengths to be used in the classroom. They pointed out that the three most challenging aspects to the transition included social interaction, financial stress, and adjusting to a new culture. In terms of effectiveness the study reveals that student veterans could be more aware of the resources available and tend to express disappointment in the services currently available.…

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Why Are Out Veterans Important
    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Why Are Out Veterans Important

    We in what way are out veterans not important. They have been there ever since the revolutionary war all the way up to now. Either they are fighting for our freedom or against people who have made wrong decisions to attack us. They have been the brave men and women who have and will lay down their lives in order to protect the country that they love and keep us safe and protected. We look up to them as brave individuals who will lay down everything to keep our rights and freedom.…

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Identity In The Thing They Carried
    • 299 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Identity In The Thing They Carried

    There is a myriad of factors that shape one’s identity; yet, one’s gender, memories, and environment have the greatest significance in the development of identity. Identity is how one views oneself both as a person and in relation to other people and ideas. Often, predetermined barriers and expectations through social construct fundamentally shape one's life experience. Moreover, the memories can also mold a person’s identity because it shows how one understands and experiences the world. In the novel, The Thing They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, the characters exemplify that these facets are linked to the formation of one’s identity through their experiences in the Vietnam War.…

    • 299 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Decent Essays

    Back From War But Not Really Home Analysis
    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Back From War But Not Really Home Analysis

    1. Back From War, but Not Really Home by Caroline Alexander from the New York Times shows the mindset of Veterans and how they have a feeling of dislocation when returning home. The veterans that made it home alive feel as though they should’ve fought with everything they had until they were no longer standing because people tend to find it easier to honor the dead veterans. The veteran’s that return from war are usually scarred and coming home can’t remove that scar. 2.…

    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    War On Veterans
    • 2034 Words
    • 9 Pages

    War On Veterans

    The Effects of War on Veterans in Afghanistan and Iraq More than half of the 2.6 million Americans dispatched to fight the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq struggle with physical or mental health problems and often begin to feel disconnected from civilian life, deriving from deployment. As stated in the article “After the Wars: A legacy of pain and pride”, written by Rajiv Chandrasekaran and published by The Washington Post. The conditions of being deployed and serving for our country can conclude in widespread consequences within soldiers in which if no help is provided, could become permanently detrimental. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Military Sexual Trauma (MST), and an increase in suicides are some of…

    • 2034 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Post Traumatic Stress Disorder In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien
    • 1180 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Post Traumatic Stress Disorder In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, is a fictional novel about American soldiers’ lives during and after the Vietnam War. Tim O’Brien illustrates in his novel the physical and emotional burdens that the soldiers carry with them during and after their deployments. One of these emotional burdens, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, is written about in particular depth compared to the more physical burdens the men carry. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, is a mental health disorder caused by a traumatic event. Symptoms of PTSD include flashbacks, nightmares, and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event.…

    • 1180 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    The Man He Killed And Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried
    • 1127 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Man He Killed And Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

    War is arguably one of the most emotional and horrific events in the lives of those who must partake in it. Many soldiers begin to question, “why me?” and begin to think about what is happening back home. In Thomas Hardy’s, The Man He Killed, and Tim O’Brien’s, “The Things They Carried”, these ideas are explored. The depth of these authors diction compels the reader to be thankful that they do not have to set foot on the battlefield, presenting the loneliness, anger and confusion of these weakened soldiers. Both Hardy and O’Brien offer the theme of war giving returning soldiers posttraumatic stress in their writings.…

    • 1127 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Great Essays

    Importance Of Resilience In The Military Family
    • 2114 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Importance Of Resilience In The Military Family

    Resilience can be defined as positive adaption in the face of adversity (Easterbrooks, Ginsbury, & Lerner, 2013). In order for individuals, families, or communities to be resilient it allows each unit to recover from trauma and continual stressors successful. Resilience can show in individuals and families if they are able to continue to function healthfully under extensive amounts of stressors (Farrell, Bowen, & Swick, 2014). There are many different factors that can contribute to the level of resiliency that individuals or families have, such as many different key factors and different resources available (Walsh, 2016). Resilience is not fixed, thus it can continuously change depending on time and differentiation of situations (Easterbrooks,…

    • 2114 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Theme Loss In Zinky Boys, By Svetlana Alexievich
    • 962 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Theme Loss In Zinky Boys, By Svetlana Alexievich

    In society, we tend to see tremendous families loosing a loved one due to war. Some of those incidences that occur to soldiers at war, tend to be harsh and unforgettable. In the book, Zinky boys, by Svetlana Alexievich, the author shows how her project of gathering interviews from people that lost a loved one at war, made it possible for her to express the idea of loss in different aspects from people’s voices. Alexievich was from Belarus, who wrote in Russia how the voices from the Afghanistan and Soviet soldiers expressed their views towards their motherland and what the real truth was from their opinion. The main point of Alexievich’s project is to explore lives of veterans and their opinion about the war.…

    • 962 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More

Related Topics

Ready To Get Started?
Discover
Company
Follow
©2024 Cram.com
Privacy Policy |  About Ads |  Site Map |  Advertise  | 
  • Cookie Settings