IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v58y2004i11p2133-2143.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Veterans seeking disability benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder: who applies and the self-reported meaning of disability compensation

Author

Listed:
  • Sayer, Nina A.
  • Spoont, Michele
  • Nelson, Dave

Abstract

Assumptions about the characteristics and motivations of individuals pursuing disability status are well known. However, policy, programming and interventions need to be based on information about the actual sociodemographic characteristics of disabled individuals, as well as their goals in seeking disability status. In this study, we focus on veterans seeking disability compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. We present information on their life circumstances and their self-reported reasons for valuing the obtainment of veterans' disability status on the basis of PTSD. There was considerable variability in the background of veterans seeking disability status on the basis of PTSD. Of concern, only about half of these individuals were receiving any mental health treatment at the time of application. Most claimants reported seeking disability compensation for symbolic reasons, especially for acknowledgement, validation and relief from self-blame. Reasons having to do with improved finances were less frequently endorsed, although the importance of obtaining improved solvency through disability status decreased as income increased. The sense of investment in obtaining a sense of self-acceptance and acceptance from others through disability status varied by sociodemographic variables. Overall, findings suggest that individuals seeking disability benefits may have unmet mental health care needs, and that policy makers, investigators and providers should consider material benefit as one of many possible reasons for engaging in a disability compensation system.

Suggested Citation

  • Sayer, Nina A. & Spoont, Michele & Nelson, Dave, 2004. "Veterans seeking disability benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder: who applies and the self-reported meaning of disability compensation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(11), pages 2133-2143, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:58:y:2004:i:11:p:2133-2143
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(03)00426-X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Benyamini, Yael & Solomon, Zahava, 2005. "Combat stress reactions, posttraumatic stress disorder, cumulative life stress, and physical health among Israeli veterans twenty years after exposure to combat," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(6), pages 1267-1277, September.
    2. Mauricio Sarrias & Benjamin Jara, 2020. "How Much Should We Pay for Mental Health Deterioration? The Subjective Monetary Value of Mental Health After the 27F Chilean Earthquake," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 843-875, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:58:y:2004:i:11:p:2133-2143. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.