Introduction
The meaning of reintegration has been defined as “the process of transitioning back into personal and organizational roles after deployment” (Currie, Day, & Kelloway, 2011). While reintegration may bring images of family homecomings and welcome home parties, it is not that simple for the returning veteran. According to a survey conducted by the United States Department of Veteran Affairs (U.S. Dept. of VA), 40 percent of surveyed military members returning from deployment report experiencing a high level of difficulty reintegrating into civilian life (Sayer, Noorbaloochi, Frazier, Carlson, Gravely, & Murdoch, 2010). As war wages, more service members are returning to face any number of barriers to their reintegration such as: mental health issues, domestic situations, employment or lack thereof, disabilities, and lack of support from the Veterans’ Affairs, etc.
Undeniably, military veterans, combat and non-combat, are
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For some veterans, “stigma can be more devastating, life limiting, and longer lasting than the primary illness itself” (Danish & Antonides, 2013, p. 551). Military culture is not conducive to help-seeking behavior, and according to Kulesza et al, (2015) “members are expected to be ‘tough,’ to ‘shut down’ their feelings, and to do their best to cope by themselves with negative affect and difficult emotions (Kulesza et al, 2015”. Help-seeking behavior is perceived as weak in the military and the fear of being unable to return to war/duty, in turn placing their military career at stake, leads service members to forgo seeking professional help (Danish & Antonides, 2013). However, according to Duvall & Kaplan (2014) there is also an uncertainty about the efficacy of many conventional therapies and there are those service members who do not have faith and/or trust in the VA or their mental health service