Citation

Holliday R, Desai A, Brenner LA, Elbogen EB, Monteith LL. J. Affect. Disord. Rep. 2021; 4: e100076.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jadr.2021.100076

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Whereas researchers and clinicians alike have expressed concerns about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, recent articles have expanded this discussion to those experiencing deleterious effects of adverse social conditions (i.e., social determinants of health), such as housing instability or homelessness (Tsai & Wilson, 2020). Similarly, commentaries have discussed the psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the general correctional population (Miller and Blumstein, 2020). Yet, no articles to date have examined nor discussed the impact of the pandemic on justice-involved Veterans. This is particularly problematic in light of the limited research specific to this population, as well as justice-involved Veterans' notable risk for mental health conditions and suicide (Blodgett et al., 2015; Holliday et al., 2020).

During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals have reported substantial increases in mental health symptoms, concurrent with increased difficulty accessing resources and treatment (Rains et al., 2020). Indeed, as noted by Rains and colleagues, reports of depression, anxiety, and substance use have intensified. Such psychiatric symptoms are already highly prevalent among justice-involved Veterans (Blodgett et al., 2015). For example, prior to the pandemic, it was estimated that nearly half of all justice-involved Veterans met criteria for a substance use disorder (Blodgett et al., 2015). Further, although prevalence rates widely vary based on method of assessment and time interval (e.g., lifetime, past-month), reported rates of depression (14-51%), anxiety (10-51%), and posttraumatic stress disorder (4-39%) among justice-involved Veterans were also notably high (Blodgett et al., 2015)...

Language: en