SKW5002 Week 2 Assignment: Exploration of Social Justice

Exploration of Social Justice

Student Name

Capella University

SKW5002

Professor Name

Submission Date

Exploration of Social Justice

Military veterans in the United States have a severe social justice issue with respect to access to mental health. Upon returning home after serving the country, the veterans come back with invisible wounds that include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and abuse of substances. Unfortunately, the stigma, the bureaucracy, insufficient funding, and lack of culturally competent care complicate the provision of the required support to a significant number of veterans. The paper will address the problem of how the issue of oppression influences the access of the veterans to the mental health services, ethical issues surrounding the situation, and the policies that are currently being implemented to address the problem. The impact of these policies and differences in the advocacy strategies, which have been used to allow easier access to care, are also assessed in this paper.

Forms and Mechanisms of Oppression and Discrimination

Veterans, particularly those who are members of marginalised groups, such as people of colour, women, and the lesbian/gay/bi/trans community, will be susceptible to experiencing systematic oppression that deprives them of access to mental health care (Bartlett et al, 2022). One of the most common types of oppression is institutional neglect, i.e., bureaucratic lack in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), resulting in years of wait times, divided care, or even refusal. An analysis by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published in 2024 indicated that almost one out of five veterans who utilized the VA to obtain mental health services had to wait a long time to obtain care, and the wait periods had negative consequences or dropout (Office, 2024).

Another important aspect is stigma. Military culture of stoicism and toughness has left many veterans unwilling to seek any kind of assistance, particularly the male veterans who are usually socialised not to display any emotional weakness. Moreover, the rural veterans are also geographically oppressed because mental health professionals and mental health clinics are in short supply. At the moment, at the end of 2022, the number of rural veterans who have little to no access to specialised VA mental health services is approximately 2.7 million because of distance or transportation problems or telehealth infrastructure (Rural Health Information Hub, 2021).

Ethical Problems Associated with the Issue

Several ethical concerns are raised in this case due to the unavailability and inequity of mental health services to veterans. The right to basic health services for people who are not able to get them because of the bureaucracy, culture, or geographical barriers violates the principle of social justice. Moreover, the dignity and worth of the individual are compromised when mental illness is not addressed and treated, and veterans end up suffering without saying anything.

It is the moral responsibility of social workers to enable systems that would bring positive results to the clients and offer equal opportunities of accessing services. Failure to do so can also result in preventable injuries, such as suicide, homelessness, and imprisonment, among veterans. The reports provided by VA show that, on average, 17 veterans commit suicide each day, which is why it is necessary to act ethically and amend the policy.

Current Enacted Policies

There are several federal policies that have been undertaken to enhance access to mental health services among veterans. THE VA MISSION Act expanded access to community care among veterans when VA services are not offered or take too long (Rasmussen & Farmer, 2023). It also increased the financing of the telehealth programs and provider networks that were not within the VA system. The Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act of 2020 is aimed at preventing suicide by establishing additional funding for mental health screenings, increasing telehealth services, and assisting mental health programs in the community (Pannell, 2021). Moreover, although the PACT Act of 2022 is primarily concerned with providing more benefits regarding toxic exposure, it encompasses information about enhanced mental health assessments and treatment of the affected veterans. Although these policies have had an effect, some major challenges remain to be addressed. In fact, the VA MISSION Act has indeed helped access through paper, but the coordination of the providers and their availability, particularly in rural settings, has been a barrier to its implementation.

Policy Impact and Constraints

The policies above have contributed to the problem of increasing access to mental health care among the veterans in a limited but quantifiable manner. In particular, telehealth services have proven to become highly promising since VA records indicate that tele-mental health visits have increased by 300 per cent between 2020 and 2022 and thus offered better access to rural and underserved veterans (McBain et al., 2023). Despite this, there is a technological barrier that is problematic, particularly to the aged veterans and those with poor internet connectivity. Additionally, although the recent legislation has allocated more funds towards suicide prevention, the same has not been carried out. The negative effect of such policies is the insufficiency of the efficacy of healthcare professionals, such as staff shortage, the lack of trauma-informed care providers, and a low level of cultural competence, which have long been issues.

Particularly, the veterans falling within the so-called “trash queer” – the LBGTQ + veterans and veterans of colour who are commonly complaining about having been discriminated against or their culture not having been sufficiently taken into account can be dissuaded from seeking the help that they require. These policy constraints are further exacerbated by low funding, chronic shortage of providers, bureaucratic requirements of the eligibility and claims processing, inconsistent policy implementation at both state and facility levels, and the absence of oversight over the quality of care received by the community partners.

Advocacy Methods and Their Effectiveness

Mental health care support among the veterans has been championed in many ways, which have resulted in heightened awareness and legislative modifications. Organisations like the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), and the American Legion have enjoyed the advantage of lobbying policymaking processes via legislative aspects, resulting in the enactment of such critical policies as the VA MISSION Act. The programs associated with the stigma reduction, like the VA-based Make the Connection, have played an important role in discouraging stigma and also encouraging veterans to seek help.

The community-based projects have also been involved, along with the non-profit organizations, in offering peer support and crisis intervention outside of the formal VA apparatus. Despite the fact that they are good initiatives, there are major issues. The legislative advocacy process is usually lengthy, and not all veterans will be exposed to the awareness campaign by the digital media as the public. Some are isolated or have no access to digital media. Further steps would be necessary to enhance the outcomes of advocacy, such as the extension of peer-led veteran support groups, creating culturally relevant mental health provider training, and introducing requisites to facilitate more efficient coordination between VA and community-based care service providers.

Conclusion

Like the stigma, which remains, the problem of access to mental health services by veterans is an urgent social justice issue that is influenced by oppression and bureaucracy. Even though some existing policies have offered a foundation under which the reforms can be implemented, such as the VA MISSION Act and the Hannon Act, it contains significant loopholes, particularly among the rural, minority, and LGBTQ + veterans. Social workers need to advance more just, trauma-informed, and culturally competent systems. It is also intended to study the VA MISSION Act of 2018 in the future to estimate its additional effectiveness and whether it can be reformed. To solve these problems is not only a policy problem that needs to be solved, but it is also a moral obligation to people who have served the nation.