#teamcombat

Using RecoveryTrek, a success management software (SMS) designed to assist case managers with tracking the progression of participants through a court’s treatment program; A’lexus and I were able to identify most of the trends and issues seen among veterans, along with the mitigation efforts employed by the court. These assessments were compiled in order to track the veteran’s compliance through their time in the treatment program and to evaluate the effectiveness of mitigation efforts used by the Veteran Treatment Court (VTC) to benefit its members. Our results were mainly demonstrated to the VTC through our RecoveryTrek presentation and the multiple compliance graphs we created, while we also briefly discussed some of the issues we experienced with the software or the courts utilization of it, to aid those who may do similar work in the future. Overall, the Team Combat practicum experience was more intriguing and gripping than I could have ever imagined, being able to observe the statistics we mentioned in class firsthand, added a chilling personal and emotional aspect to the internship. Along with this, it opened my eyes to the disheartening and alarming side of being a United States military veteran, as before I would have only regurgitated the parts that are glorified in society. Lastly, though I am personally connected with many veterans, I had never heard of a Veterans Treatment Court before this experience. However, I was not alone in this regard as according to the survey we conducted only 13% of service members from Fort Bragg had any inclination to what a VTC was or does for veterans. As a result, one off our dominate concerns to be addressed in the future is the urgent need for more Veteran Treatment Courts around the nation and the dissemination of their benefits to rural service members in the immediate future.

The way in which these RecoveryTrek assessments were completed is as follows; first, I developed an outline to be used for the case notes as they were updated weekly and written in an uncomprehensive and sporadic fashion. This outline contained a trends, issues, and mitigation effort section for each veteran for each week they were in the Veteran treatment court and allowed me to read through the case notes and add information as I saw fit. This outline helped me organize this information and allowed me to reference specific dates when designing the graphs and PowerPoints or when questions were asked during our in-person presentation. Specifically, this delt with the seventh and nineteenth foundational Public Health competencies as we assessed the veterans needs and assets that affect the health of the community and the individual. I displayed this information in a concise manner; utilizing graphs, written/spoken words, pictures, statistics, and videos to obtain the best understanding of our information. Additionally, I worked to condense all the information I found into a comprehensive and abbreviated version that could be presented in under ten minutes as that was all the time we were allotted to speak at the courthouse, due to time restraints and the fact the courthouse only had one courtroom for us to use (rurality issue). Finally, using the presentations, graphs, and videos we presented our RecoveryTrek findings to the court staff and suggested possible advancements that could be made in the future to not only benefit the employees but the veterans as well.

National Farmers Day is an annual celebration to honor the heritage of farmers around the world, originating in West Africa, more specifically Ghana in 1985. However, now this observance is held around the world to give thanks to the individuals who sustain the rest of the population, surprisingly in the United States farmers only make up 2% of the population, according to census data. Thus, the Team Combat group was invited to the Coats annual Farmers Day celebration to assist the veteran’s treatment court (VTC) in spreading awareness about their mission, program, and how community members could contribute to this underserved population of veterans, who inadvertently had already contributed to the Coats community. Overall, this considerably aided in my understanding of the community in which I’m now apart of, the issues revolving around funding, how to diffuse information about the Veterans Treatment Court, and how difficult it can be to enact change by relying on a population that is disproportionately disadvantaged along with the individuals we are attempting to support.

During my time at the Coats Farmers Day festival, I was encouraged to see a community, especially a rural one, able to acquire the resources to commemorate a population often overlooked. The feeling during the day was an optimistic one for many reasons, first I witnessed the participants of the festival excited to get outside again, since as a society we are still dealing with a pandemic. Also, the gathering instilled a since of enthusiasm in me and allowed me to realize change is possible, especially for those who feel neglected. Our practicum group had our first experience communicating with our community members and fellow veterans; we accomplished our competencies by handing out pamphlets created by the veteran’s treatment court and collected donations that will be used to enhance the outreach of the treatment court. Specifically, this method accomplished our eighteenth and nineteenth public health competencies, which puts an emphasis on communication. Most notably characterized by using communication strategies that encompass different audiences and sectors. We did by having different modes to deliver the message; by using brochures and donation jars with written, visual, and numeric material, and oral communication to effectively spread the courts message. These methods allowed us to supply information to many populations including able bodied community members, those who have disabilities such as being deaf or hard of hearing, blind, or even children by utilizing pictures and slogans on the jars to convey the message. All of which I believe, made the communication of our information and the effect it had on the community that much more substantial.

The complications around funding and disseminating information in a rural community isn’t a new one but is a wicked one that needs to be altered to enhance underserved populations. By no fault of a certain individual, but rather a combination of social determents; rural populations face many issues not seen by their urban counterparts. Specific to the context of trying to spread information and collect money, events like these don’t happen very often in rural communities and asking an already impoverished community for funding can be extremely difficult. When discussing the scarcity of events like this in rural communities, its usually because of multiple factors, most common these include low participation caused by geographic isolation, far travel distances for members or a lack of public transportation, conflicts when members must decide how to use their time (work vs. fun), and limited ability of rural workers to set their own schedule. Along with this, the issue of collecting donations is a problematic one especially when asking a community that is disproportionately poorer than urban counterparts. Higher poverty rates in rural communities are caused by a host of contributors such as lower education attainment and employment opportunities, medical expenditures due to higher chronic illness rates, changes in the environment (since agriculture is a major industry) and many more that could affect how much spare income members have to donate. Lastly, because of all these rural specific issues the Veterans Treatment Court must work harder to attain resources and funding, along with creating innovative solutions to better inform its community members. All of which is in the hopes of helping this subpopulation of the community and therefore the community as a whole, thrive.

This week I finished reviewing all my veterans case notes and completed my RecoveryTrek assessment which identified the trends, issues, and court mitigation efforts for the time they spent in the program. Using this information, I started to create my presentation that will be used to demonstrate my findings to the veteran treatment court and Rural Health class in mid-November. (The veterans name, photo, and ID number have been removed for confidentiality)