Effects of structured vocational services in ex-offender veterans with mental illness: 6-month follow-up
| Autor: | James P. LePage, Edward L. Washington, Brandi Davis, Avery A. Lewis, Anne Glasgow |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2013 |
| Předmět: |
Employment
Male medicine.medical_specialty media_common.quotation_subject Population Prison Manuals as Topic medicine Humans education Psychiatry Depression (differential diagnoses) Veterans media_common Programmed Instructions as Topic education.field_of_study Substance dependence Mental Disorders Rehabilitation Rehabilitation Vocational Criminals Middle Aged medicine.disease Mental illness Mental health United States humanities Substance abuse Unemployment Female Psychology Follow-Up Studies |
| Zdroj: | The Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development. 50:183 |
| ISSN: | 0748-7711 |
| DOI: | 10.1682/jrrd.2011.09.0163 |
| Popis: | INTRODUCTION A sizable veteran population is currently incarcerated. The most recently collected data from the Bureau of Justice from 2004 identified approximately 225,000 veterans incarcerated in prisons and jails across the country [1]. The majority, between 57 and 61 percent, are currently incarcerated for violent crimes. The other major domains accounting for current incarceration are property crimes (e.g., theft and burglary) at 13-17 percent, drug-related crimes (e.g., possession, distribution) at 12-13 percent, and other crimes at 14 percent. Though no reliable national data exist on incarceration rates for Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom veterans, data from the first gulf war found that approximately 8 percent of veterans who served during that period were arrested in the 4 yr following the conflict's end. Interestingly, deployment to a combat area was not a risk factor for arrest, though the presence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was associated with incarceration [2]. An estimated 64,000 veterans are released back to the community each year [3]. Of these, a sizable portion will be reincarceratated. Estimates place reincarceration rates of all prison releases between 45.3 [4] and 51.8 percent [5] over a 3 yr period, translating to more than 33,000 of annually released veterans returning to incarceration. Those who have been incarcerated will encounter a number of difficulties. One factor interrelated with incarceration is homelessness. Up to 40 percent reported some homelessness in the year before incarceration [6]. Rates of homelessness upon discharge range from 10 percent of Federal prison discharges [5] to 50 percent of State prisoners discharged to an urban setting [7]. Another factor is mental illness. A high percentage of incarcerated veterans experience mental health problems, with numbers ranging from 15 to 46 percent [8-9]. Veterans in State jails and Federal prisons, respectively, have 10 and 7 percent higher rates of mental health problems than nonveteran prisoners [1], and veterans with longterm incarceration histories have higher levels of psychiatric problems, drug use, and alcohol use. Depression is the primary mental health diagnosis, occurring with twice the frequency of all other diagnoses combined [8]. One of the largest challenges faced by incarcerated veterans and the more than 1.4 million Americans currently incarcerated [6] in State and Federal prisons is finding employment once released. After incarceration, in any given week, 40 percent of those with a felony history and 55 percent of black males with felony histories are unemployed [10]. The chances of getting hired are approximately 40 percent worse for those with a felony history than for those without [10-11] and unemployment rates have been found to be 15-25 percent higher [10,12]. Those with felony histories are frequently forced to take low-paying unskilled positions [13], resulting in lifetime earnings 10-30 percent lower than of those without a felony. LePage et al. found that even in a very supported residential environment with trained vocational staff, only 29.4 percent of homeless veterans with nonsubstance-related felonies found competitive employment; this was in contrast to 70.2 percent of those without felonies [14]. The inability to find stable employment contributes to additional difficulties, including homelessness. In a survey of incarcerated individuals with mental illness, 22 percent believed they would be homeless after release, with the number increasing to 43 percent for those with mental illness and substance abuse. Actual rates of homelessness for those released are as high as 50 percent for State prisoners released to urban areas [5]. The U.S. Conference of Mayors found that low-paying jobs and unemployment were two of the strongest influences on homelessness [15]. In fact, in dually diagnosed populations, employment, not chronicity of mental illness, was predictive of prolonged homelessness [16]. … |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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