A team of graduate students conducted research with the non-profit ARVets to identify rural Veterans’ barriers to receiving health care in Arkansas and provide recommendations to overcome those barriers.
Clinton School students Lindsay Kuehn of Minneapolis, Minn., Josh Visnaw of Saginaw, Mich., Sara Chapman of Bentonville, Ark., and Kathryn Slee of Independence, Mo., spent the past year talking to Veteran stakeholders, surveying rural health and mental health providers and researching best practices of providing health care to rural Veterans in the state of Arkansas.
The students’ work capitalized on recommendation from the Governor’s Yellow Ribbon Task Force dedicated to the preservation and protection of services to former and current service men and women and their families.
Their goal was to find the reasons why Veterans are not seeking care through the Veteran’s Administration (VA) and find ways that ARVets can address those needs or help Veterans overcome these barriers to health care access.
Veterans are a higher risk population for poor health in the state of Arkansas. According to the Yellow Ribbon Task Force report, Veterans are 28 percent more likely to report 14 or more physically unhealthy days per month and 56 percent more likely to report 14 or more mentally unhealthy days per month than non-Veterans. Additionally, Veterans are 25 percent more likely to have a heart attack, 32 percent more likely to have coronary artery disease and 45 percent more likely to smoke cigarettes.
The students chose to focus on rural Veterans because they face additional hurdles to receiving health care through the VA and are the most likely to have unmet health care needs.
The students’ research shows that some of the big barriers to care are the distance to the nearest VA facility, cost of care and stigma associated with behavioral health care. Preliminary recommendations to overcome these barriers include accessing dual care, creating partnerships with providers and organizations already in the community, and emphasizing preventative care programs.
The results of this research will be used by ARVets to develop a behavioral health program and physical health referrals to better address Veterans’ health care needs.
“ARVets is thrilled and honored to have the opportunity to work with the Clinton School of Public Service this year,” said Rhonda Caple, ARVets’ development associate. “We are working to develop programmatic components that reach veterans across Arkansas in both rural and urban areas. By conducting research through their practicum project, the Clinton School team has done a great job in helping us start the process of addressing the needs of rural populations in the categories of behavioral and physical health.”
The students completed the project as part of the Clinton School Practicum program, which sends students into the field to complete a comprehensive public service project as part of the Master of Public Service degree program.
About ARVets
ARVets is non-profit that strives to be a one-stop shop supporting Arkansas Veterans and their families. ARVets was created from the Governor’s Yellow Ribbon Task Force recommendation that there be a unifying factor to connect Veterans with Veteran-specific resources. Some of the services that ARVets offers include: one-on-one cash management, job readiness programs, and homelessness prevention assistance to Veterans.
More information on ARVets is available at www.arvets.org.
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