Using a Service Sector Segmented Approach to Identify Community Stakeholders Who Can Improve Access to Suicide Prevention Services for Veterans

Abstract

Veterans in need of social services may access many different community agencies within the public and private sectors. Each of these settings has the potential to be a pipeline for attaining needed health, mental health, and benefits services; however, many service providers lack information on how to conceptualize where Veterans go for services within their local community. This article describes a conceptual framework for outreach that uses a service sector segmented approach. This framework was developed to aid recruitment of a provider-based sample of stakeholders (N = 70) for a study on improving access to the Department of Veterans Affairs and community-based suicide prevention services. Results indicate that although there are statistically significant differences in the percent of Veterans served by the different service sectors (F(9, 55) = 2.71, p = 0.04), exposure to suicidal Veterans and providers' referral behavior is consistent across the sectors. Challenges to using this framework include isolating the appropriate sectors for targeted outreach efforts. The service sector segmented approach holds promise for identifying and referring at-risk Veterans in need of services.

Out of the trenches; prevalence of Australian veterans among the homeless population and the implications for public health

“…46 It has also been noted in the literature that mainstream health services are not often well equipped to address the mental health issues of homeless veterans. 47 While it is beyond the scope of our study to comment on this, our finding that multiple health issues and hospital attendances were common among veterans who were rough sleeping reiterates the importance of trauma-informed practice in all services that may come into contact with veterans experiencing homelessness. 48 In the US, coupling mental health support for veterans with housing has been the dual focus since 2009 of national efforts to reduce homelessness among veterans 20 and there is merit in Australia following this lead.…”

Personal and Professional Knowledge of and Experience With Suicide and Suicide Prevention Among Stakeholders in Clinical and Community Practice

“…Ethical approval was obtained prior to data collection from the local VA and the academic affiliates’ institutional review boards (IRB) and informed consent was obtained from each participant. The ascertainment and description of the sample and data collection procedures for this study has been described previously (Matthieu, Gardiner, Ziegemeier, & Buxton, 2014), therefore a brief overview will be provided here.…”