Barriers to Psychosocial Services Among Homeless Women Veterans

Abstract

Veterans make up a disproportionate fraction of the nation's homeless population, with women veterans up to 4 times more likely to be homeless than nonveteran women. This article provides a grounded description of barriers to psychosocial services among homeless women veterans. Three focus groups were held in Los Angeles, California, with a total of 29 homeless women veterans. These women described 3 primary, proximal (current) barriers: lack of information about services, limited access to services, and lack of coordination across services. Compared to nonveteran homeless women, women veterans potentially face additional challenges of trauma exposure during military service, postmilitary readjustment issues, and few services specific to women veterans. Understanding their service needs and experiences is critical to the development of relevant and appropriate services that move homeless women veterans away from vulnerability and into safety.

Keywords:

• homelessness
• psychosocial services
• qualitative research
• substance abuse
• treatment barriers
• women veterans

Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women's Health (Contract No. 04–04–PO–36011) and the Department of Veterans Affairs, Women Veterans Health Strategic Healthcare Group. Dr. Hamilton is an investigator with the Implementation Research Institute (IRI) at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University, St. Louis, through an award from the National Institute of Mental Health (R25 MH080916-01A2) and VA HSR&D QUERI. At the time of this study, Dr. Washington was an Advanced Research Career Development Awardee of the Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development Service (No. RCD–00–017). The views expressed are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Department of Veterans Affairs or of the Department of Health and Human Services. All authors had full access to all the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. A preliminary version of this article was presented by Drs. Hamilton, Poza, and Washington at the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research & Development National Meeting, National Harbor, MD, February 2011.