That's the number of veterans without health insurance in the U.S., according to a May 2012 Urban Institute Report, Uninsured Veterans and Family Members: Who Are They and Where Do They Live? (PDF). The report says another 0.9 million vets "use VA care, but have no other health insurance coverage." Additionally. some 0.9 million veterans' family members are uninsured.
It's Friday and time for another round of announcements and going-ons here at the CDP. We're busy putting together the schedule and finalizing details for our fall slate of one-week training events. We're going to try and visit both out west as well as the east coast this time around. We'll post the dates and locations as soon as they are set. Before then, however, we've got our June iteration of "Topics in Deployment Psychology," which kicks off June 11, a week from Monday.
The CDP's weekly research update contains the latest news, journal articles and useful links from around the web. Some of this week's topics include:
• Embracing the Diversity of Military Social Work.
• Social Work with Veterans in Rural Communities: Perceptions of Stigma as a Barrier to Accessing Mental Health Care.
A member of the CDP staff, Ms. Elizabeth Rishkofski, recently took -- and did very well on -- the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). Based on her scores, she was given an opportunity to select her career field in the Air Force Reserves and will be leaving us temporarily for training. We wish her godspeed. But her experience got me thinking again about the ASVAB – what is it and why might it matter to us as behavioral health providers?
The percentage of respondents to the just-released Blue Star 2012 Military Family Lifestyle Survey (large PDF) who indicated changes to retirement benefits as their top military family life concern. In second place? Pay and benefits, which 20% of the respondents identified as a top issue.