Establishing Partnerships to Provide College Health Care Support for Returning Veterans

Struggling to Fund Health Care Services

Public community colleges often struggle to find sufficient funding to support robust mental health care services for returning veterans and their families.  As a result, colleges often refer veterans to Veterans Affairs (VA) to fill their health care needs. 

Although the VA may be able to provide high quality mental health care, veterans may be hesitant to use VA mental health care services due to potentially justified fears that honest disclosures to health care providers within the VA could damage future career prospects within the military.  The hesitation may be particularly acute if the veteran is struggling with sensitive issues such as addiction, severe depression or sexual identity. 

Partnership with US Vets for Health

In response to these challenges, West Los Angeles College (West), a two-year community college in Culver City, California, has established a partnership with US Vets.  US Vets is the largest nonprofit organization in the country dedicated to helping veterans in need.  In addition to therapeutic services, US Vets offers job training, education services and housing placement for homeless veterans. 

In our partnership, the lead mental health care provider is a veteran and a practicing doctor of clinical psychology.  This psychologist supervises student interns who are working towards licensure in various mental health care fields (LMFT, LCSW, Psy.D. etc…).  The student intern model allows US vets to serve more veterans than they otherwise would if they used only fully licensed psychologists.

Campuses can of course structure their partnerships in the ways that are best suited to their particular veterans population.  At West, the psychologist and the interns visit our campus on a regular schedule so that Vets can feel free to either make an appointment or just drop by for mental health care services, support for housing or help with education or job-related skill development. 

Additional Services & Benefits

The psychologist and the team also offer periodic “town hall” style events where veterans may seek help navigating the tangle of VA benefit regulations.  In addition, US Vets also provides faculty and staff sensitivity training workshops.  Faculty and staff are trained to recognize some common challenges that returning vets face as well as the most effective ways to respond to those challenges.  Finally, US Vets has offered advice in how to establish and sustain student veteran clubs and support groups. 

I recommend that any college faced with a shortage of mental health care services for veterans reach out to their local chapter of US Vets (www.usvetsinc.org).  If you live in an area without easy access to a US Vet office, they may still be able to help support your student veteran population or may be able to refer you to resources in your community.