Behavioral Health and Service Use Among Civilian Wives of Service Members and Veterans: Evidence from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health.

摘要

Recently, concern has grown regarding access to behavioral health care for service members, veterans, and their families. The health systems that primarily serve U.S. military service members and veterans the Department of Defense Military Health System (MHS) and the Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Health Administration (VHA), respectively also provide health care coverage to eligible family of service members and veterans. In this study, we conduct an exploratory analysis of behavioral health status and utilization of behavioral health care among one group of these family members: currently or formerly married women who have never served in the military themselves but receive medical coverage from either the DoD or the VHA (hereafter referred to as military wives ). Using population-based epidemiological data from a national survey, we compare a sample of military wives with a sample of women who have other forms of medical coverage. The goal of this comparison is to identify differences in the use of behavioral health care that may indicate unmet needs among military wives. This report will be of interest to military and veteran health policymakers and to command and line leadership, as well as planners, managers, and providers of behavioral health care across the United States.