Capstone Project Part V: Action Plans

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NEEDS ASSESSMENT 4

Needs Assessment for Homeless Veterans with Mental Illness

Margaret Johnson

Walden University

The mission that American hospice professionals are to learn how better to serve Veterans. These are a few of the challenges they may be facing from illness, isolation, or traumatic life experience (Veterans & Their Needs. (n.d.).). The first step to providing quality end of life care to our nation’s Veterans is to learn more about their unique needs by becoming familiar with the military culture (Veterans & Their Needs. (n.d.).). All wars are different and provide unique experiences and sometimes complications to the Veterans who served in them. (n.d.)). Too many of our nation’s Veterans live with complicating factors such as homelessness, substance abuse, PTSD, and more (Veterans & Their Needs. (n.d.).).

The study will use a survey to conduct a needs assessment that will provide crucial data regarding the homelessness, mental health, and other attributes of the veterans. The first step will involve the identification of a study group and the potential participants. The second phase will involve getting an adequate number of volunteers that will engage in the survey process. Participants of the needs assessment will complete different items regarding financial issues and traumatic encounters. This approach would help in understanding their situation and various interventions that could benefit them. The survey will be conducted in different contexts, and the researchers will be required to obtain the informed consent of participants. Participants will be informed about the voluntary nature and purpose of the exercise at the beginning of the survey. Sensitive and identifiable information will not be collected to safeguard the anonymity of participants. Comment by DMW: Are you speaking of the stakeholders? Comment by DMW: But some stakeholders will involve VA administration and community homeless shelters to get their sense of need for resources. Right?

The stakeholders are to be contacted during the study. This will include homeless veterans living in different areas such as relatives’ homes, hospices, retirement homes, rehabilitation centers, and other social facilities. The researchers will contact these individuals to gain insight into their daily life issues and struggles that have resulted in homelessness and deteriorating mental health. Researchers will also contact other stakeholders, including the family members of the participants. This approach would help to determine how the problems of the subjects affect other society members (Brown & Jones, 2016). Other stakeholders that will be contacted include the facilitators and providers of care in various social facilities to determine the interventions and challenges encountered when providing care to veterans. Comment by DMW: Who will conduct the survey? Comment by DMW: Homeless vets should not be the only stakeholders for your needs assessment. Understand the purpose of the needs assessment, what information do you need to learn about homeless vets, and who can give you that information about their needs, resources, upcoming policy changes, housing resources, accessible specialized services, etc.?

Stakeholder survey questions

1. Give me a narrative of your life, for example, the manifestation of mental health issues before joining the military.

This question will help to evaluate the mental health history of the veterans and to determine whether such issues are common in their families. This question is designed to assess the self-awareness of the subjects and to create an atmosphere of familiarity with the researchers.

2. Did you encounter challenges readjusting to a healthy social life?

This question will help to explore some of the problems that veterans undergo when transitioning from their professional life. The item has been designed to understand the variations between military and civil life.

3. What kinds of support systems do you currently use to alleviate your health challenges?

This item will help to determine the various local and national interventions that have been implemented to aid the veterans. The question has been designed to help the participants to recall and state such supports easily.

4. What are the primary factors that have resulted in your homelessness?

This question will reveal the risks and vulnerabilities that could render the ex-service personnel homeless. This item has been designed to help participants recall the general problems encountered while in service.

5. Do you feel that homelessness and mental health issues affect your ways of life?

This item will help explore the living standards and quality of living for participants. It has been designed to reveal the various social and economic challenges that the participants undergo.

6. Do you think that the government fulfills its obligations to you as a former agent?

This question will help to determine the general attitudes that veterans hold towards the authorities and the societies. The item is designed to assess the failures and shortcomings of the government and social systems from the perspective of the veterans.

7. Do you think that the experiences serving in the military may have intensified your mental health issues?

This item will help to explore the interpretations of military personnel to their career. The question has been designed to reveal the various professional risks associated with joining the military.

8. Did the mental health issues result in homeless?

This item will test the correlation between the different study concepts. It is designed to increase understanding about the focus of the study.

9. Does your condition affect the ability to interact and socialize?

The question will assess the impact of the veterans’ condition on socialization. It has been designed to reveal the possibilities of discrimination and stigmatization of this demographic cohort.

10. Do you think that other veterans encounter similar problems?

This item will help to explore the self-perspective of participants. It has been designed to help them compare with other veterans that lead relatively healthy lives.

The survey items will be adjusted with concepts that fit the various stakeholders, including the leaders, the staffs, and participants of the survey. This approach will help in acquiring diverse opinions and information that would ensure a sufficient understanding of the study issue.

Margaret, these questions are fine for the veterans to gain their perspective. But your list of stakeholders if far too narrow. What about the managers at homeless shelters, mental health facilities, food banks, and other community services that are used by homeless vets. You may explore secondary data from census materials to know the growth of veterans in the area, or seek other reports that show how the number of homeless veterans are being seen by other community agencies. All of this information will feed into the needs assessment so that you learn the parameters of the problem. It will help you justify the needs or gaps in the community, and the approach or methods likely to close those gaps, In other words, your strategic plan is about closing those gaps through advocacy, social change or leadership.. As you refine this for your final submission, you need to expand your list of stakeholders and questions, as well as think more about the sources of secondary data for your needs assessment.

Reference

Brown, G. R., & Jones, K. T. (2016). Mental health and medical health disparities in 5135 transgender veterans receiving healthcare in the veterans health administration: a case–control study. LGBT health, 3(2), 122-131.

Veterans & Their Needs. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.wehonorveterans.org/veterans-their-needs