Reintegrating Military Personnel to Community Life: An Occupational Therapy Perspective

The numbers of returning service men and women from Iraq and Afghanistan are experiencing combat-related complications is an area of growing concern for military health providers. This scholarly project investigated the risk factors and problems associated with post traumatic stress disorder among service men and women returning from military duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to examine occupational performance issues faced by the returning soldier. The most significant complications include: inadequate coping skills, loss of interest/participation in leisure, vocational disruptions, problems with reintegrating into the family structure, and ineffective communication/interpersonal skills. The Lifestyle Redesign Program (Mandel, et al., 1999), Occupational Science, and the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (AOTA, 2002) were used to develop a thirteen week protocol for occupational therapy intervention with returning soldiers. The protocol includes: a week of assessments based on the Model of Human Occupation, eleven weeks of interventions, and a week of discharge planning. The protocol is a resource intended for use in a Veteran\u27s Administration outpatient facility. The occupational therapist will likely need to tailor the intervention protocol to meet the needs of the population served