A Scoping Review of Interventions Targeting the Mental Health of Australian Veterans

Ben Wadham, Lisa Andrewartha, Sharon Lawn (), Ilke Onur and Laura Catherine Edney
Additional contact information
Ben Wadham: College of Education, Psychology and Social Work, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia
Lisa Andrewartha: School of Education, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia
Sharon Lawn: College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia
Laura Catherine Edney: Flinders University Institute of Mental Health and Wellbeing, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 6, 1-16

Abstract: Serving in the military can have significant impacts on the mental health of veterans and their families. Military personnel can be exposed to a range of physical stressors, psychological trauma, risky lifestyle factors, a regimented military culture, and inadequate support when transitioning out of service. This article reviews research on interventions designed to improve the mental health of Australian military veterans in order to synthesise current knowledge and identify gaps in the literature. Our scoping review followed PRISMA recommendations and comprised peer-reviewed literature published since 2000. The review demonstrates a dominance of psychologically driven research paradigms and interventions and a neglect of the importance of social factors in shaping veteran mental health. There is a wide range of interventions available; however, the literature is narrow and limited. We found little evidence that the lived experience of veterans had been harnessed in program design or delivery. We argue the need for a holistic approach that moves beyond psychological and biological understandings of health and wellbeing to incorporate social and cultural determinants. Future research could adopt a stronger multidisciplinary approach, increased socio-cultural understanding, and greater consideration of the lived experience of veterans and their families.

Keywords: veterans; mental health; wellbeing; military; social determinants; scoping review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/6/796/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/6/796/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:6:p:796-:d:1417507

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().