Contextual Facilitators and Barriers of Community Reintegration among Injured Female Military Veterans: A Qualitative Study

Publication date: Available online 1 September 2017
Source:Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Author(s): Brent L. Hawkins, Brandi M. Crowe
ObjectiveTo understand the facilitators and barriers to community reintegration (CR) among injured female veterans.DesignPhenomenological qualitative designSettingCommunityParticipantsCommunity-dwelling female veterans with physical and/or psychological injury (N=13).InterventionsNoneMain Outcome MeasuresNoneResultsConventional content analysis revealed three types of facilitators, including: (a) strong social supports; (b) impactful programs; and (c) protective personal beliefs. Six types of barriers included: (a) inadequate services; (b) lack of access to services; (c) poor social support; (d) difficulty trusting others; (e) non-supportive personal beliefs; and (f) injury factors.DiscussionMultiple environmental and personal factors acted as facilitators and barriers to CR. Findings are relatively consistent with previous veteran and civilian community reintegration research that indicates the importance of health-related services, attitudes of others, and social support. However, females in this study reported being impacted by many of these facilitators and barriers because of their gender.ConclusionsThis study supports the need to foster social support among injured female veterans throughout the rehabilitation process to promote CR. Long-term social support can be gained by incorporating services such as adjunctive therapies, recreation, and other social programming into the rehabilitation repertoire to help with CR for all veterans, particularly females.



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