According to studies military veterans who experienced combat have a much greater propensity to attempt suicide. Around 33% of Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans who were treated by the VA in the early to mid 2000’s had psychosocial or mental problems. Likewise 20% had substance use disorders.
Serious Psychological Distress for Veterans
In a three year period starting in 2004 the average was just under 2 million or 7% of veterans over the age of 18 had serious psychological distress. Younger veterans are defined from ages 18-25 were two times as prone to suffer from serious psychological distress (21%) compared to veterans who were ages 26-54 who suffered at 11%. Veterans over the age of 55 only suffered serious psychological distress at 4%. When comparing women to men in the year of 2006 they are two times more inclined to have serious psychological distress than men (15% compared to 7%). Low income veterans making under $20,000 a year are also much more predisposed to suffer with serious psychological distress compared to higher income veterans.
Substance Use Disorder for Veterans (substance use disorder)
During the same period as the serious psychological distress study, the same amount of veterans over the age of 18 suffered from substance use disorder. Younger veterans, ages 18-25 suffered from substance use disorder at a rate of around 25%. Whereas veterans in the next 2 age brackets suffered from substance use disorder at the same rate they suffered from serious psychological distress in the paragraph above. Whereas there was a drastic difference between men and women with the serious psychological distress study, there was not a significant difference with substance use disorder sufferers. Substance use disorder affected males at 7% and females at 6%. Low income veterans were more prone to suffer with substance use disorder, who were at 11%. While middle and higher income veterans suffered with substance use disorder at around 6.5%.
Veterans Who Suffer from Both serious psychological distress and substance use disorder
For all veterans during this time span, just over 1% or around 400,000 more than 18 years old had both substance use disorder and serious psychological distress. As veterans got older the concurrence rate decreased. The demographic who suffer the most with concurrence were for the ages of 18-25 which was at 8.5%. While veterans over the age of 55 were under 1%. There was zero major difference in genders where the rate for women was at 2% and for men it was at 1.5%. Lower income veterans were more prone to experience substance use disorder and serious psychological distress than higher income veterans.
Because our treatment center relies on evidence based practices, our Substance Abuse Intensive Outpatient Program shares many common methods with other successful rehab programs. The foundations of our treatment program for psychological disorders and substance abuse also rely on the principles of harm reduction, motivational interviewing, stages of change and cognitive behavioral therapy to promote recovery from alcohol abuse and drug treatment. In fact, our Intensive Outpatient Program in Memphis, TN that has been proven to be effective in the treatment of dual diagnoses, alcohol abuse and drug treatment in peer reviewed treatment outcome studies. Our treatment center provides services to those who need more treatment than one hour a week, but less than 24 hour care, by providing three hours of treatment per day, three to five days per week, in an intensive outpatient setting. If you or a loved one is showing signs of psychological distress, alcohol abuse or needs drug treatment rehab, they should be assessed by a trained mental health professional who can help design a treatment plan that can result in recovery. Treatment for substance abuse can be highly successful. Call us at 901-682-6136 to schedule an appointment.
No comments:
Post a Comment