The Veteran Supported Education Service Treatment Manual: VetSEd

solving attitude. ―I am hopeful the problem solving worksheet will help at least
somewhat.‖ This is not meant to be a perfunctory task and the peer VetSEd provider
might help the Veteran by having him/her review other times when s/he has
successfully addressed a problem.
D. Knowing Your Population: Serving Returning Veterans with Trauma and
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Cooccurring
Mental Illness and Substance Use
Veterans, especially those Veterans returning from the recent OIF/OEF/OND conflicts,
have a great deal of interest in pursuing their educational goals. However, among the
influx of returning Veterans, several barriers stand in the way of these Veterans achieving
their educational goals. For example, Veterans, especially those with mental health
conditions such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, and/or traumatic brain injury who also
have a co-occurring substance abuse problem, face great challenges in achieving their
educational goals compared to Veterans without such diagnoses. When you are working
with a Veteran, it is valuable to understand the type of mental health condition s/he has.
The type of condition may have a great deal to do with the kinds of behaviors you are
seeing. Below we discuss common mental health experienced by returning Veterans, how
these conditions may affect their pursuit of educational goals, as well as, potential
resources you can consider to assist Veterans in overcoming barriers posed by these
conditions.
i. Knowing your Population: Understanding and Serving Veterans with
Trauma and PTSD
Many of the Veterans you work with in VetSEd will have lived experience with trauma.
―Trauma‖ broadly refers to the experience, threat, or witnessing of physical harm
(American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Veterans enrolled in VetSEd may have
experienced trauma in military combat, terrorist or IED attacks, serious car accidents,
natural disasters, major medical illnesses and injuries, and/or military and/or childhood
physical or sexual abuse, assault, and violence. The reality is that the most Americans
(about 61% of males and 51% of females) experience one or more traumas during their
lifetime (Kessler et al., 1995). Various stressors related to military service in particular
may cause trauma (Seal et al., 2007).
Trauma is an important treatment consideration for peer VetSEd providers because it can
create barriers for Veterans that complicate their ability to reach meaningful life goals
such as graduating from college and obtaining a good job (Najavits et al., 1997; Ballenger
et al., 2000; Felitti et al., 1998). Barriers associated with trauma are both internal and
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