Veteran Reentry Challenges & How Technology Transforms Support Services
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While veterans are praised in the United States for their bravery in protecting our country, they are often left without a support system when they return home. Approximately ⅓ of veterans report a history of arrest, compared to ⅕ of the general American population. Veterans have faced more traumatic experiences than the typical individual, dealing with veteran reentry challenges such as post-traumatic stress disorders, mood disorders, and other mental health issues.

Veteran-Reentry-How-Technology-Elevates-Support-Services

Due to these hard factors, veterans need extra support services. Veteran reentry programs align veterans with caseworkers who help them meet their unique needs, including housing, medical care, substance abuse treatment, employment assistance, and more.

Emerging veteran service technology allows case managers to take on more clients, ensuring that no person is forgotten. Today, we'll explore the challenges veterans face upon returning home and how technological innovations in reentry programs give these brave individuals a brighter tomorrow.

What are Veteran Reentry Challenges?

Previously incarcerated male veterans are 3.5 times more likely to experience homelessness than the average individual. Examples like this outline the challenges in veterans' reintegration into civilian life. Other usual struggles veterans face when attempting to rejoin society include:

  • A lack of social belonging: Veterans have seen heartbreak and violence that the general public can't even comprehend. This makes it difficult to relate to others, reconnect with family, and adjust to new routines. Veterans can become isolated, struggling to maintain relationships and form new ones.
  • Difficulty becoming and staying employed: Service members can be experts while in the military, but they don't have the official certification required when working as civilians. The high level of discipline required in the military is not the same in the civilian workforce, and veterans can struggle to get along with their co-workers for that reason. Additionally, some employers have a bias against veterans, and some veterans never acquired resume and job search skills.
  • Creating a structure for life: In the military, higher-ranking officers dictate a schedule. Once released, veterans are responsible for their every minute, and this can be a challenging adjustment. Veterans are responsible for establishing their access to healthcare, veterans benefits, and support, which are three notoriously difficult systems to navigate, even for civilians. In fact, ⅔ of veterans experience a difficult transition to civilian life.
  • Veteran mental health struggles amid reentry: Many veterans experience transition stress, where they feel grief from the deaths of their fellow service members or shame over something they may have done while serving. Physical injuries from serving can be life-long. Veterans have to deal with both the pain of those and the mental toll they can take.
  • Housing is expensive and difficult to acquire: Veteran homelessness increased by 7.4% in 2023 due to rising housing costs nationwide. Without stable employment, it can be difficult to remain housed without additional help from government services. However, the good news is that overall, veteran homelessness has still declined by 52% since 2010.

Traditional veteran support programs have fallen short because of a lack of awareness of access. Up to 89% of veterans haven't used programs to increase social connections simply because they didn't know they existed. Additionally, veterans don't know if they are eligible for the programs or not, so that can be another barrier to implementation and use.

Online Resources for Veteran Reintegration

A role of nonprofits in the local, state, and federal sectors is to ensure that veterans understand which services are available to them. Due to improved technology in the past decade, such as high-speed internet, technologically-equipped libraries, and smartphones, online resources are easier to access than ever. Here is a list of valuable online resources that your nonprofit can share with your veteran clients:

Technology That Improves Modern Reentry Programs

Technology allows veterans to access care from anywhere with an internet connection. Veterans in rural areas who may have had difficulty accessing care can now do it from the comfort of their own homes. This same technology can help doctors, caseworkers, and other relevant parties do their jobs better. Digital tools, such as the VA Health and Benefits mobile app, allow care providers to deliver personalized, quality support that improves outcomes.

Here are a few examples of new technology for veteran support.

Case Management Software for Veterans

Veterans often need a case manager to walk them through confusing services, such as VA benefits. Veteran case management software is a customizable system that allows case managers to better track and provide services for their clients. It creates a comprehensive data center for all care providers to see updates, plan services, log case notes, and so much more.

Veterans can see higher success rates when every element of care is coordinated together. For example, coordinated care lowers overall healthcare costs by 17% and reduces inpatient admissions by 18.8%.

Some of the features you can find in case management software for veterans include:

  • Program delivery tracking to keep tabs on which programs your clients attend and benefit from.
  • Outcome tracking to assess which service plans are solving the problems that veterans are facing.
  • Grant tracking to help nonprofits keep detailed notes on how grant money was spent, ensuring they follow all grant rules.
  • Automated intake and workflows to streamline administrative processes, helping veterans receive support faster and curb time-consuming data input for nonprofits.

Additionally, reentry case management software specifically focuses on helping previously incarcerated veterans who start fresh.

Virtual Counseling Platforms

Virtual tools for reentry programs often include some kind of virtual counseling. This is where mental health professionals can complete therapy online. Programs such as Talkspace offer online counseling and take leading insurance providers.

To get started, veterans must complete a brief assessment, then Talkspace suggests counselors that meet their needs. This removes the barrier to entry for receiving care, such as driving to an office (which is difficult for service members who don't own cars) or finding the right therapist.

Job-Matching Algorithms

To speed up career development, veterans can use job-matching algorithms to find a role that suits their skills. Programs such as Google Cloud's Talent Solution help veterans find jobs that suit them with their military occupational specialty code. Google's machine learning enables people to match their military skills with civilian openings. The results have been powerful, helping veterans increase their job applications by 13%.

Support Veterans Better at Your Organization With PlanStreet

Veteran reentry program software is one of the leading technologies to improve veteran care. PlanStreet's robust veteran case management software offers effective, easy-to-use tools that streamline your team's work, allowing them to focus more time on crafting service plans to increase success stories in veteran programs.

PlanStreet's powerful features are some of the best tools for veteran reintegration, including:

  • Supportive services for veterans and families: PlanStreet helps you connect veterans to local services for employment, housing, and more.
  • Personalized plans: PlanStreet helps you track individual needs, enrolling veterans in specific programs for physical and mental health.
  • Needs assessments: Create better service plans with robust needs assessments that help caseworkers understand the root of each veteran's needs.
  • Robust reporting: Data can be surveyed at a granular level to improve processes and see which services work best for veterans.
  • Behavioral health assessments: Mental health workers can use behavioral health assessments within PlanStreet to align physical and mental needs.
  • Security and compliance: PlanStreet offers top-of-the-line privacy and encryption protocols so that your client's data is always safe.

Our customizable interface can be tailored to your organization's exact needs, maximizing productivity. Schedule a free live demo today to learn how you can better serve your veteran clients with PlanStreet.

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