Welcome to the 36 th in a series of free webinars for peer supporters Veteran Homelessness and Peer Support with Jim Zenner The webinar will begin at 9 AM Pacific, 10 AM Mountain, 11 AM Central, noon Eastern.
This webinar series is presented by members of the International Association of Peer Supporters (iNAPS) with generous assistance from Optum, without whom this series would not be possible. iNAPS is solely responsible for the content of the webinar. Thank you for your participation!
Recording in Progress These webinars are recorded and available on the iNAPS website for future viewing. Thank you for your participation!
Certificates are an iNAPS Member Benefit If you are a member of iNAPS , you can send an email requesting a quiz for webinar #36 to: membership@inaops.org After you complete the quiz you will receive a certificate.
Veteran Homelessness and Peer Support
Jim Zenner Mental Health Clinical Program Manager III Emergency Outreach and Triage Division LA County Department of Mental Health Jzenner@dmh.lacounty.gov
Creation of Soldier’s Homes • The US started creating in mid 19 th century • Purpose was to create a home and community for Veterans • Self-sustaining and entrenched in the outside community • Required Veterans to surrender their pension • Generally were reserved for Veterans not doing well financially • Underwent several changes before many of them became VA hospitals • This system largely responsible in preventing homelessness among Veterans
VA and community addressing housing needs • In 2009, the pledge to end homelessness was announced and there were 154k homeless Veterans at that time. • VA leveraged existing, expanded, and created programs to combat homelessness • Currently around mid 30k homeless Veterans • 4k in Los Angeles alone • Nationally homelessness would have dropped 3% in 2017 without Seattle and LA • CES and integration of Veterans • Major LA County initiatives to serve homeless Veterans
Trajectories into homeless for Veterans • OIF/OEF/OND majority don’t plan ahead • Failure to project financials • Chronically homeless with no resources • Prejudice in hiring practices • Family conflict • Failure to appears and legal issues
Military Culture with Homeless Veterans • Living in adverse conditions • Creating a secure community and branches of service • Leave no one behind mentality • Taking care of your troops • “It could always be worse” “They can’t stop time” • Betrayal and mistrust of Government • Sick call ranger and not wanting to be the one • Colorful language • Combat arms vs Fobbit/POG/REMF
Military Culture with Homeless Veterans • Embrace the suck • Dark humor and death themes • The intolerables: vulnerability and helplessness • Competitive and comparisons • The pecking order • Assertive and direct communication
Unique role of Veteran as Peer Support • Shared lived experience adds another significant dimension • Recovery vs Reintegration work as a veteran peer support • The veteran versus service member mentality and difficult transitions • Veteran helping veteran challenges • Engaging a veteran • Unit, duty station, theater of combat • “What did you do in the military?” • Helping establish a healthy veteran identity
Questions
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