The Veteran Supported Education Service Treatment Manual: VetSEd

Appendix J
206 | P a g e
A “Home” for VetSEd - Options for VA
In this section we explore the different service options in VA that could provide a
―home‖ for supported education. The model is fairly self-contained and transportable,
but also has complexities that are not often present in other programs. These include the
need to partner with colleges and perhaps even deliver the support on campus, as well as
the need to link with Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) and Mental Health, just to
name a few. As the VA leadership considers how to situate supported education within its
array of services, there are many options, each presenting different strengths or
opportunities. Some of these options are explored in this section.
A. Supported Education as a Veterans Health Administration (VHA)
Clinical/Rehabilitative Service
Supported education was originally conceived and implemented within civilian
rehabilitation medicine, more specifically psychiatric rehabilitation. Similar to its
cousins, ‗supported employment‘ and ‗supported housing‘, there are many conceptual
and practice related links between supported education and both clinical and
rehabilitation services. Hence, all of these practices have arisen within the mental health
arenas in both civilian and Veteran service systems. In the example of supported
employment, a national roll-out of this service was situated within Veterans Health
Administration (VHA) clinical services (Resnick & Rosenheck, 2007) with necessary
authorizing legislation. This was due in part because of the understanding that
employment services have to be well integrated with clinical services in order to be
successful (Becker & Drake, 2003). Another reason is that typically larger non-disability
civilian services that address education, employment or housing, do not have the
expertise or resources to address the unique dimensions of mental illness and the
challenges this poses to successful community outcomes. Findings from our needs
assessment also show that Veterans prefer to have an integrated team of clinicians and
supported education helpers.
B. Supported Education and the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA)
The findings of our needs assessment suggest the critical role of being able to access and
use the Post 9/11 GI Bill in actualizing the education aspirations of Veterans, and this is
recognized by the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA). Recently the VBA has
undertaken significant efforts to improve access to GI Bill information. The VBA too has
recognized the need for outreach to Veterans with disabilities on campuses and has