Postmilitary adjustment to civilian life: potential risks and protective factors.

Background: Adjustment to civilian life in Canadian veterans after release from military service has not been well studied.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were: (1) to explore dimensions of postmilitary adjustment to civilian life and (2) to identify demographic and military service characteristics associated with difficult adjustment.

Design: Data were analyzed from a national sample of 3,154 veterans released from the regular Canadian Forces during 1998 to 2007 in a cross-sectional survey conducted in 2010 called the Survey on Transition to Civilian Life.

Predictors of likelihood and intensity of past-year mental health service use in an active Canadian military sample.

Objective: This study examined associations between sociodemographic, military, and psychiatric need variables and past-year mental health service use among active Canadian military members. The likelihood and intensity of services were examined across two provider types--mental health providers and medical providers.

Methods: Data were drawn from the first epidemiological survey of mental health in the Canadian Forces, conducted by Statistics Canada in 2002.

Predictors of general medical and psychological treatment use among a national sample of peacekeeping veterans with health problems.

We investigated general medical and psychological treatment use predictors among peacekeeping veterans with health problems, aiming to find those characteristics most associated with treatment use intensity (i.e., visit counts).

Association of PTSD and depression with medical and specialist care utilization in modern peacekeeping veterans in Canada with health-related disabilities.

Objective: We examined the relative associations between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression severity with medical and specialist care use in modern peacekeeping veterans with health-related disabilities.

Method: The participants consisted of 1016 male veterans who served in the Canadian Forces from 1990 to 1999, selected from a larger random sample of 1968 veterans who voluntarily completed an anonymous general health survey conducted by Veterans Affairs Canada in 1999. Survey instruments included the PTSD Checklist-Military Version (PCL-M), Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale, and questionnaires of health problems and service use, sociodemographic characteristics, and military history.