Brad J. Badgley, M.Ed. U.S. Air Force Veteran Senior Health Promotion Specialist

1. Applying the Socioecological Model to Enhance Programs and Services for Student-Veterans in a College Health Environment t Brad J. Badgley, M.Ed. U.S. Air Force Veteran Senior Health Promotion Specialist Alice! Health Promotion, Columbia University Wellness Needs of Military Students Coalition Past-Chair Lorri Castro-Zenoni Director, Health & Wellness Services Salt Lake Community College Wellness Needs of Military Students Coalition Chair

2. Common Themes for Student-Veterans • Experienced war in an area of conflict or stress • Potential mental and social difficulty • PTSD symptoms are not untypical • Financial aid issues are common • Lack of knowledgeable campus staff and/or available resources • Transitional issues are common • Housing needs unmet • Child-care and spouse/partner needs • Veteran-specific orientation • Identity perspectives and student engagement • (Student-veteran organization on campus) • Classroom dynamics • Interpersonal relationships • Potentially higher risk population for alcohol misuse

3. Obstacles Are Different For Every Veteran • Combat stress reactions • Boredom, missing the adrenaline rush • Low frustration tolerance or impatience • Frustration over missed or lost time due to length of deployment or service • Difficulty concentrating • High alertness with difficulty relaxing or finding safety • Feeling out of place • Having difficulty developing new relationships, particularly with people who haven’t gone through the same experiences as the veteran • Anxiety about being re-deployed • Anxiety in general, about being a new student

4. Setting the Tone • Positive • Promote achievable behaviors • Nurture/support, beneficial, constructive, hopeful, optimistic • Inclusive • Include all elements of the target population • Incorporating, embracing, involving, comprehensive, multicultural • Abstainer, user, abuser, celibate, monogamous, promiscuous, thin, overweight, in-between, etc… • Empowering • Affirm and encourage rather than scare and blame Adapted from the work of Michael Haines, Northern Illinois University (Media PIE)

5. What makes some Veteran Students healthy and others unhealthy?

6. How can we create a campus community in which Veteran Students have a chance to be healthy and live long, healthy lives?

7. Student-Veterans & Higher Education Where Are Some Areas Higher Education Can Improve Service to Student-Veterans? • Assisting military students with their transition to the college environment. • Only 22 percent of postsecondary institutions with services for military students and veterans provide transition assistance. • Providing professional development for faculty and staff on the transitional needs of military students. • Approximately two out of five schools that serve military students and veterans provide training opportunities for faculty and staff to be better able to assist these students with their transitional issues. • Based on data from: "From Soldier to Student: Easing the Transition of Service Members on Campus“.

8. Student-Veterans & Higher Education • Improving Service Continued…. • Training staff to meet the needs of military students with brain injuries and other disabilities. • Twenty-three percent of colleges and universities that serve military students and veterans have staff who are trained to assist veterans with brain injuries, and 33 percent have staff trained to assist veterans with other physical disabilities. • Streamlining campus administrative procedures for veterans returning from military deployments. • Only 22 percent of institutions with programs and services for military personnel have developed an expedited re-enrollment process to help students restart their academic efforts. • Providing opportunities for veterans to connect with their peers. • Only 32 percent of institutions with services for veterans and military personnel have a club or other organization for these students. • Based on data from: "From Soldier to Student: Easing the Transition of Service Members on Campus”.

9. Where Do I Start? • Programs • Services • Policies • Activities • Prevention initiatives • Barriers • Assets and resources • Institutional climate • Campus and cultural norms • Available data • Research • Assessment • Partners or potential partners • Others….

10. Strategic Thinking Casting a Wide Net • National • State • Community • Campus

11. SWOT Analysis • Strengths: • Characteristics of current things that work • Weaknesses (or Limitations): • Characteristics that place current efforts at a disadvantage relative to others • Opportunities: • External chances to improve initiatives or performance (e.g. data driven), can be environmental • Threats: • External elements in the environment that could cause trouble

12. Socioecological Model • An ecological approach focuses on both population-level and individual-level determinants of health and interventions. • It considers issues that are community-based and not just individually focused. • Health is determined by influences at multiple levels (e.g., public policy, community, institutional, interpersonal, and intrapersonal factors)

13. Campus Ecology • Campus ecology provides a multifaceted view of the connections among health, learning, productivity, and campus structure. • Campus ecology identifies environmental factors and influences, which interact and affect individual behavior. • These factors may be the physical setting or place, the human aggregate or characteristics of the people, organizational and social climate, and/or characteristics of the surrounding community. Because significant and dynamic interrelationships exist among these different levels of health determinants, interventions are most likely to be effective when they address determinants at all levels. • Historically, the health field has focused on individual-level health determinants and interventions.

14. Health Status & Behavior • In the ecological model, health status and behavior are the outcomes of interest and viewed as being determined by the following: • Public policy • Community • Institutional factors • Interpersonal processes and primary group • Intrapersonal factors

21. Group Activity • 5 Groups • Intrapersonal • Interpersonal • Institutional • Community • Public Policy

23. Overcoming Institutional Challenges to Create Opportunities • Think about what you can do rather than what you can’t • Change is complex • Requires individual & environmental change • Stay true to the mission, vision, and core values of your organization • Develop corroborating evidence of effectiveness • Try to improve a little bit each year • Align with best practices • New member orientation • Relationship building • Utilize social media & social marketing to connect (effectively) • Success driven-system • Expectations for excellence

24. Other Thoughts on Working with Student-Veterans • Seek first to understand, then to be understood • Student-centered • If you try being everything to everyone you end up being no one to anyone • Widen your lens, but narrow your focus • One size does not fit all • Open and transparent process • Be creative and think outside the box • Share resources, knowledge, and experiences • Be real and honest with student-veterans • Builds trust & greater credibility • No need to “recreate the wheel” • Move away from scare tactics • They don’t work • Data and theory MUST inform practice • The devil is in the details • Ask questions • Get involved with veteran community

25. Tips for Talking With Veterans Conversation Starters • What was your job and where did you go while in the military? • How are you and your family doing? Inappropriate Questions • Did you kill anyone? • Did you see anyone die? • Are you glad that you're back? • Do you have to go back? • Do you think we are winning?

26. Moving Forward • Process oriented • Crafting vision & mission • Developing goals & objectives • Plotting a strategy • Identifying key stakeholders • Plan for and measure change

27. ACHA Coalition for the Wellness Needs of Military Veteran Students Purpose • To support ACHA’s core value to support social justice, human dignity, and respect for all by ensuring that ACHA maintains an active group of multi-disciplinary individuals committed to raising the concerns of military veteran students. • To help college health professionals identify the unique needs of student veterans as they transition from non-military life as first time or returning college students. • To encourage college health professionals to develop culturally competent health services that are reflective of the unique health needs of military veteran students. • To be a mechanism for the exchange of information, resources, and tools to address the health concerns of student veterans and professional concerns of college health professionals. • To identify, generate, and disseminate best practices addressing the unique health needs of student veterans. • To provide continuing education, advocacy, and professional development across ACHA as it relates to the wellness needs of military veteran students.

28. Questions? • Thank you • Contacts: • Brad J. Badgley • bjb2153@columbia.edu • Lorri Castro-Zenoni • Lorri.Castro-Zenoni@slcc.edu ‎