Homeless Women Veterans with Military Sexual Trauma Reintegrating Into the Civilian Sector

Servicewomen and veterans who have returned home experience difficulties with the process of reintegration. As a result, women veterans are now a substantial segment of the current homeless population in the nation. Federal initiatives are set up to help returning veterans reintegrate into the civilian sector and/or recover from homelessness, but not all women veterans have reintegrated successfully. A motley range of traumas rendered many women veterans incapable of overcoming traumatic injuries such as military sexual trauma (MST), the injury unique to servicewomen and veterans. The purpose of this study was to determine if MST was the barrier for women veterans attempting to reintegrate into the civilian sector while residing at the nation's largest non-profit homeless initiative in Long Beach, CA. The ADVANCE Women's Program (AWP), located on site at U.S. VETS, is a gender specific initiative assisting homeless women veterans with reintegration into the civilian sector. AWP attempts to assist women veterans with housing and income. An archival study was accomplished at U.S. VETS to investigate the assumption that women veterans who do not attain housing or income have been victims of MST. A Pearson Chi-square analysis showed that women veterans (n=50) who did not attain AWP goals were significantly more likely to have MST than women veterans who attained one (n=21) or both (n=29) AWP goals, chi2 (2, N = 100) = 19.14, p = .000. The significance that MST was a profound and unspoken injury impeding the reintegration of women veterans at AWP emphasized the need to re-evaluate and modify existing initiative protocols. A collaborative platform providing continuous evidence-based improvements toward healthier treatment of homeless women veterans will support supplementary innovative concepts and research that promote the healing of MST.