Veteran Transition Research Articles

Talent Management and Its Relationship to Successful Veteran Transition Into the Civilian Workplace

The Problem Historical trends reveal that after protracted armed conflict, the U.S. Military has experienced troop reductions (Shanker & Cooper, 2014). Over 200,000 service members from the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have left active duty each year since 2014. For veterans who successfully navigate the hiring process, transitioning into a civilian workplace may prove daunting (Minnis & Wang, 2011), particularly regarding retention. Some studies reveal that nearly half of newly hired veterans left their first post-military job within the first year of hire (Maury, Stone, & Roseman, 2014). The Solution This article explored strategic talent management planning considerations and their relationship to military-to-private sector transition processes, from the perspective of the organization and veterans who made successful transitions. Through the utilization of a conceptual framework focused on integrated processes across organizational levels, we suggest that human resource development (HRD) practitioners can effectively integrate veterans into the workplace and assist organizations with maintaining optimally performing workforces by identifying strategic relationships between veteran transition processes and organizational talent management objectives. The Stakeholders Through the use of a framework, HRD practitioners enhance their ability to assist organizations in attracting, developing, and retaining veteran talent using a systematic approach.

Art Therapy Services to Support Veterans' Transition to Civilian Life: The Studio and the Gallery

Beyond having knowledge of the treatment of combat-related trauma, art therapists need to understand veterans' experiences of transition from military to civilian life in order to offer effective interventions. This article reviews the literature on veteran transition and the challenges common to transition difficulty and describes two major components of the art therapy program at the Veterans Outreach Center in Rochester, New York: a drop-in studio space and a veterans' art gallery. The clinical benefits of studio and gallery approaches in art therapy are discussed in relation to treatment needs associated with veteran transition, collective trauma, and creating spaces for remembering and retelling. Art therapy may support successful transition within the context of interpersonal relationships with family, friends, and members of the community that the veteran calls “home.”

Military Students and Contexts in Adult Education

Selecting representative articles for a military-related special issue of Adult Learning was a daunting task. Even the term military student could mean a member of the active duty, Reserve, National Guard, or retired military population, a spouse or primary dependent of one of these students, or all of the above (Military.com, 2008). In addition, military-related education occurs in a variety of settings, both military and civilian. articles in this special issue demonstrate the range of contexts, programs, and issues related to the military student, including developing leadership skills in civilian members of the military community, developing intuitive decisionmaking skills in actively serving military mid-level leaders, choosing to pursue a master's degree while on active duty, easing veterans' transitions and adjustment to the classroom, and highlighting two female veterans experiences during their first year of community college. More specifically, this special military issue begins with civilians working with the military, specifically civilians selected to attend the Management Staff College's (AMSC) program in leadership development, which addresses working within the military culture. Godinez and Leslie, in Army Civilian Leadership Development: Self-Efficacy, Choice, and Learning Transfer, note such civilians work closely with the military and are valued members of the military community. To develop as leaders, civilian students in this military context must recognize they have a choice to take action that influences their work environment. authors suggest AMSC's learning environment is intentionally designed to be paradoxical to the work environment in an effort to promote student leadership self-efficacy beliefs. next two articles situate in the Army's Command and General Staff College (CGSC) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, an active duty military school focused on developing critical thinking skills for mid-level officer leaders. In The Wisdom of Tacit Knowing-in-Action and Mission Command, Moilanen details a research project conducted at CGSC examining officer perceptions of intuitive decision making in times of crisis. According to the author, adult learners regularly confront complex and dynamic challenges in moments of crisis that require self-efficacy of intuition and immediate decision. He concluded an after action review process can elicit perceptions of tacit prompts that compel action. In the third article, Decision-Making Considerations for Mid-Career Officers to Pursue Master's Degrees, Vance explores how U.S. officers attending the CGSC decided to enroll in a master's program. study determines if and how career requirements, post-military aspirations, family considerations, and previous academic experience influenced officers' choice to pursue a master's degree. In addition, findings identified four themes related to the choice, specifically self-efficacy, goal setting, persistence, and time management. Moving to the higher education context, implementation of the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill Veteran's Benefit Program has increasingly affected institutions, educating active duty military and those separated from the military. Kirchner, in Supporting Student Veteran Transition to College and Academic Success, notes that more than 73% of all separating service members plan to use their student benefits (Student Veterans of America, 2015). …

Supporting Student Veteran Transition to College and Academic Success

Veterans enrolled in college face unique challenges compared with those of traditional students. Their experiences and perspectives, coupled with battling stereotypes and entering an unstructured college setting, contribute toward what can be a difficult transition. Student veteran organizations, veteran resource centers, veteran-specific orientations, and faculty training are relatively new approaches used by universities and have not been well-researched or reported. Educators need to be aware of the currently offered services and prepared to establish a safe environment for student veterans in their classrooms. By acknowledging student veterans and understanding how to support them in the classroom, education providers may be less concerned about the veteran stereotypes that persist today. This article provides adult educators with an overview of student veterans and their transition into college, offers suggestions to ease veterans’ adjustment to the classroom, and provides research opportunities for faculty to further advance higher education’s understanding of student veterans.

Dual Mission: An Innovative Field Model for Training Social Work Students for Work With Veterans

This descriptive article explores a collaborative model that blends the dual missions of training social work students to work with military personnel, veterans, and their families while serving student veterans on campus. The model consists of 2 main components: (1) a nationally recognized service component for providing academic, health and behavioral health, career, and research and technical assistance services for student veterans as they transition into, through, and out of higher education; and (2) a training component for social work students that includes a campus-based field unit that trains social work students to work with student veterans, a course on helping troops and veterans transition, and a federal grant designed to produce social work graduates for working with veterans.

Evaluation of a Group Intervention for Veterans Who Experienced Military-Related Trauma

Military-related trauma and veteran status have been linked with posttraumatic stress symptoms, depressive symptoms, and other personal and interpersonal difficulties. While many treatment evaluations for people with posttraumatic stress exist, few veteran populations or group formats have been evaluated. This report presents an evaluation of the Veterans Transition Program (VTP)–a group-based treatment for veterans who experienced a military-related trauma that is negatively impacting their lives. Fifty-six veterans attended the VTP; all attended every session and completed pre- and post-tests assessing posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms. Significant pre- to post-test improvement was found on all scales. These findings demonstrate the potential benefit of the VTP and encourage further research.

Protecting into emotion: therapeutic enactments with military veterans transitioning back into civilian life

Over 18.5% of military personnel returning from war zones to civilian life suffer mental health issues, which can lead to family breakdown, homelessness and other problems. Almost 4000 Australian soldiers have returned home from active service in the last decade suffering from combat stress and mental health conditions. A 2009 Australian independent government review warned that a new generation of veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and severe mental health disorders will emerge in the next five years, with as many as one in four likely to need mental health treatment. The Difficult Return: arts-based approaches to mental health literacy and building resilience with recently returned military personnel and their families is a three-year Australian Research Council funded arts project aimed at supporting the mental health and well-being of recently returned veterans in Australia, USA and Canada. The project combines a range of arts-based strategies to help returning veterans, including online digital films to improve awareness and help seeking motivation, a performance project with ex-soldiers and actors, and a process-based group work programme. The paper will focus specifically on the development of the Veterans Transition Programme (VTP) a partnership between Griffith University and the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. The VTP leverages the resilience and resources of veterans, providing help to participants attempting to better understand the impact of military experience on their lives. It draws on a range of psycho-educational and action-based approaches, including life review and drama enactments to engage participants in ways of dealing with disturbing events from their lives. The paper will describe and reflect on a number of the strategies used in the VTP, for example, how the drama enactments help to integrate emotion, cognition and embodied awareness, the significance of contact when working with trauma, and the importance of a therapeutic milieu in constructing ‘units’ of support for the veterans.

Managing The Re-Employment Of Military Veterans Through The Transition Assistance Program (TAP)

With the drawdown of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and a $1.05 trillion dollar cut in the Department of Defense budget over the next ten years, tens of thousands of veterans are flooding the job market at a time when millions of civilians cannot find employment. To fight this high number of unemployed veterans Congress passed the Veterans Employment Bill of President Obamas Jobs Bill in November 2011. This paper discusses the government sponsored military veteran Transition Assistance Programs (TAP) effectiveness in reducing the veteran unemployment rate and presents the results of a survey of 350 Army personnels perceptions of the utility of the services offered through the TAP.

U.S. Military Veterans Transition to College: Combat, PTSD, and Alienation on Campus

U.S. universities are witnessing an influx of student veterans who have been under chronic stress, have suffered injuries, and currently exhibit symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This study utilized quantitative survey data to test a model of what causes alienation on campus among student veterans. We then present quotations from student veterans describing the types of situations they find alienating. The results have direct implications for how student affairs professionals may help veterans succeed in college.

From Boots to Books: Applying Schlossberg's Model to Transitioning American Veterans

This introduction to the strengths, needs, and challenges of veterans as they transition from the military to higher education is presented within the framework of Schlossberg's transition model (Schlossberg, Waters, & Goodman, 1995). Academic advisors must understand the way that veteran transitions to college are both similar to and different from those of the general student population so they can explore relevant topics and help connect student-veterans to appropriate supports and services that facilitate their personal and academic success. Advisors are given questions to employ in soliciting information about the ways they and their institutions can better serve student-veterans.

Coming Home: A Group-Based Approach for Assisting Military Veterans in Transition

This study is an evaluation of the Veterans Transition Program, a residential, group-based program designed to assist the transition of military personnel back into Canadian society by aiding with their personal and career readjustment. Participants in the program included 18 male soldiers who experienced varying degrees of combat-related trauma. Standard measures of traumatic stress symptoms, depression, and self-esteem were administered to the participants in addition to participant interviews. The measures were administered before, immediately after, and 3 months post-program. Post-program research interviews were conducted and analyzed using the Critical Incident Technique research approach. An overview of the program is presented, along with research results and recommendations to practitioners working with soldiers experiencing trauma-related stress reactions.

After the Glory: The Struggles of Black Civil War Veterans

The heroics of black Union soldiers in the Civil War have been justly celebrated, but their postwar lives largely neglected. Donald Shaffer's illuminating study shines a bright light on this previously obscure part of African American history, revealing for the first time black veterans' valiant but often frustrating efforts to secure true autonomy and equality as civilians. After the Glory shows how black veterans' experiences as soldiers provided them for the first time with a sense of manliness that shaped not only their own lives but also their contributions to the African American community. Shaffer makes clear, however, that their postwar pursuit of citizenship and a dignified manhood was never very easy for black veterans, their triumphs frequently neither complete nor lasting. Shaffer chronicles the postwar transition of black veterans from the Union army, as well as their subsequent life patterns, political involvement, family and marital life, experiences with social welfare, comradeship with other veterans, and memories of the war itself. He draws on such sources as Civil War pension records to fashion a collective biography.