Some veterans have trouble readjusting to civilian life for a variety of reasons, but limited and incomplete data to assess the extent to which veterans experience readjustment difficulties complicates efforts to help them, GAO has observed.
Over the next six years, over 1 million service-members are expected to leave the military. Agency officials and veterans GAO spoke with suggested additional actions that VA can implement to improve its assistance for transitioning veterans, according to GAO-14-676.
It said, for example, a few VA staff suggested that VA conduct additional research to identify veterans who are predisposed to PTSD and better understand why some veterans do not use VA services.
Veterans at all of the sites GAO visited suggested that it would be beneficial for separating service-members to have additional time to adjust to the idea of being a civilian and relearning what civilian life is like, GAO said.
It said that without comprehensive information on the difficulties experienced by recently-separated veterans, VA cannot assess risks to achieving its objectives and may be missing opportunities to enhance assistance to veterans by not providing needed services early in the veteran’s readjustment process.
GAO recommends that VA take steps to better understand the difficulties faced by readjusting veterans and use this information to determine how best to enhance its benefits and services for these veterans. VA concurred with GAO’s recommendation and described its recent efforts and plans for improvement.
