Focus group interviews lasted approximately 1.5 hours. Participants were asked a series of questions regarding their transition out of the military and their experience as a veteran. Quotes from these focus interview groups are presented throughout the report. All data collection procedures were approved by the University of Southern California Institutional Review Board.
In total, 1,824 individuals responded to the survey. Of those, 265 were not eligible to complete the survey. Forty-eight percent lived outside the sampling frame, 43% were still serving in the military and 9% had not served in the military. Another 274 respondents did not continue the survey after the initial demographics. The remaining sample included 1,294 Chicagoland veterans who completed the survey.
The State of the American Veteran: The Chicagoland Veterans Study, conducted by the University of Southern California (USC) School of Social Work Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans & Military Families (CIR) and in partnership with Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work, is an effort to provide data-driven recommendations for serving the large population of veterans residing in Chicago and the surrounding area. Service members encounter a series of needs as they transition out of the military. These include securing employment and housing, addressing physical or mental health issues and adjusting to civilian culture. The ease through which this transition is made has a profound impact on post-service well-being. In an effort to examine how Chicagoland veterans have managed this transition as well as the current state of their overall needs, the Chicagoland Veterans Study surveyed 1,294 veterans living in Cook, DuPage, Lake and Will counties. In addition, focus group interviews were conducted to supplement the findings from the survey.
Social connectedness, or the degree to which someone feels connected to their social environment, is an important element of service member to civilian transition. Respondents who reported agreeing or somewhat agreeing were considered as endorsing the item. Almost half of post-9/11 veterans (49%) and 23% of pre-9/11 veterans reported feeling disconnected to the world around them. Similarly, 48% of post-9/11 veterans and 23% of pre-9/11 veterans indicated feeling distant with their peers and as if they do not belong, even around people with whom they were close. Reports of feelings of social connectedness can be seen in Figure 5.
While 40% of post-9/11 veterans screened positive for PTSD, only 20% of pre-9/11 veterans screened positive for PTSD. Similarly, while 36% of post-9/11 veterans screened positive for depression, 19% of pre-9/11 veterans screened positive. Although risk for suicide rates were concerning for both groups, post- 9/11 veterans were significantly more likely to meet the criteria indicating risk for suicide. Thirty-three percent of post-9/11 veterans in the sample met the suicide risk criteria and 15% of pre-9/11 veterans also met that criteria. When asked if they had thoughts about, or made attempt(s) at, killing themselves in the past 12 months, 68% of pre-9/11 veterans and 51% of post-9/11 veterans responded never. Twenty-one percent of pre-9/11 veterans and 27% of post-9/11 veterans indicated having a brief passing suicidal thought over the past year. Sixteen percent of post-9/11 and 7% of pre-9/11 veterans indicated having a plan to take their life during the last 12 months (see Figure 17). A large proportion of veterans who took part in the focus groups reported that they only noticed and acknowledged mental health symptoms after leaving their transition from the military, with many reporting feeling that they had ignored the signs of their health challenges. A large majority of them expressed the opinion that all service members leaving the military today should “get checked.”
Sixty-one percent of pre-9/11 veterans and 65% of post-9/11 veterans did not have a job when they left the military (Figure 6). There was no difference between pre-9/11 and post-9/11 veterans in civilian job status when leaving the military. In regards to current employment status, post-9/11 veterans were more likely to be employed full-time than pre-9/11 veterans, with a little over half of post-9/11 veterans surveyed reported working full-time (see Figure 7). While 54% of post-9/11 veterans were employed full-time, only 30% of pre-9/11 veterans were employed full-time. Post-9/11 veterans were also over twice as likely to be working part-time (15%) as pre-9/11 veterans (6%). It should be noted that pre-9/11 veterans were eight times more likely to report being retired (48%) than were post-9/11 veterans (6%). Post-9/11 veterans had higher rates of being unemployed and looking for work (13%) in comparison to pre-9/11 veterans (8%); and were also more likely to be unemployed and NOT looking for work (7%) compared to pre-9/11
The majority of both pre- and post-9/11 veterans reported low to moderate levels of life satisfaction, with approximately 47% of pre-9/11 veterans and 33% of post-9/11 veterans reporting being satisfied with their life, and with only 46% of pre-9/11 and 34% of post-9/11 veterans agreeing that they have gotten the important things they wanted in life (see Figure 3).