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“Then COVID happened…”: Veterans’ Health, Wellbeing, and Engagement in Whole Health Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on US military veterans’ health, wellbeing, and care engagement. Healthcare systems like VA need additional information about the pandemic’s biopsychosocial impacts and how a Whole Health approach may help to address them. OBJECTIVE: T...

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Autores principales: Purcell, Natalie, Sells, Joanna, McGrath, Sarah, Mehlman, Haley, Bertenthal, Daniel, Seal, Karen H
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8842446/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35174002
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/21649561211053828
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author Purcell, Natalie
Sells, Joanna
McGrath, Sarah
Mehlman, Haley
Bertenthal, Daniel
Seal, Karen H
author_facet Purcell, Natalie
Sells, Joanna
McGrath, Sarah
Mehlman, Haley
Bertenthal, Daniel
Seal, Karen H
author_sort Purcell, Natalie
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Little is known about the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on US military veterans’ health, wellbeing, and care engagement. Healthcare systems like VA need additional information about the pandemic’s biopsychosocial impacts and how a Whole Health approach may help to address them. OBJECTIVE: To examine how the pandemic has affected veterans’ health, wellbeing, and engagement in the VA Whole Health System of Care. METHOD: We conducted qualitative interviews with 40 veterans at a large multicampus VA healthcare system during the pandemic. Informed by a Whole Health approach, interviews used open-ended questions to holistically explore pandemic impacts on mental and physical health, healthcare access and engagement, social support, coping strategies, and use of VA healthcare and wellness services. Interviews were conducted by telephone, audio-recorded, and analyzed using a matrix-based technique. Interviews were supplemented by an original survey assessing pandemic impacts; descriptive frequencies were calculated to describe and characterize the interviewed sample. INTERVIEW RESULTS: Nearly, all participating veterans described significant pandemic impacts on their wellbeing, especially loneliness and sorrow stemming from isolation and disruptions to ordinary routines. These emotional impacts—sometimes combined with new constraints on care access and personal mobility—disrupted veterans’ health plans and sometimes deterred engagement in both routine and wellness care. Veterans already struggling with chronic mental and physical health conditions and those who experienced transitions or losses during the pandemic described the most severe impacts on their wellbeing. Virtual VA wellness services, especially health coaching and mind-body wellness groups, were a key source of support and connection for those who engaged in them. CONCLUSION: We discuss the implications of our findings for care systems attempting to implement a Whole Health System of Care, including how they can address postpandemic barriers to engagement in healthcare and wellness programs, and how wellness programs can be leveraged to support those most at risk after the COVID-19 pandemic and in future crises.
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spelling pubmed-88424462022-02-15 “Then COVID happened…”: Veterans’ Health, Wellbeing, and Engagement in Whole Health Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic Purcell, Natalie Sells, Joanna McGrath, Sarah Mehlman, Haley Bertenthal, Daniel Seal, Karen H Glob Adv Health Med Original Article BACKGROUND: Little is known about the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on US military veterans’ health, wellbeing, and care engagement. Healthcare systems like VA need additional information about the pandemic’s biopsychosocial impacts and how a Whole Health approach may help to address them. OBJECTIVE: To examine how the pandemic has affected veterans’ health, wellbeing, and engagement in the VA Whole Health System of Care. METHOD: We conducted qualitative interviews with 40 veterans at a large multicampus VA healthcare system during the pandemic. Informed by a Whole Health approach, interviews used open-ended questions to holistically explore pandemic impacts on mental and physical health, healthcare access and engagement, social support, coping strategies, and use of VA healthcare and wellness services. Interviews were conducted by telephone, audio-recorded, and analyzed using a matrix-based technique. Interviews were supplemented by an original survey assessing pandemic impacts; descriptive frequencies were calculated to describe and characterize the interviewed sample. INTERVIEW RESULTS: Nearly, all participating veterans described significant pandemic impacts on their wellbeing, especially loneliness and sorrow stemming from isolation and disruptions to ordinary routines. These emotional impacts—sometimes combined with new constraints on care access and personal mobility—disrupted veterans’ health plans and sometimes deterred engagement in both routine and wellness care. Veterans already struggling with chronic mental and physical health conditions and those who experienced transitions or losses during the pandemic described the most severe impacts on their wellbeing. Virtual VA wellness services, especially health coaching and mind-body wellness groups, were a key source of support and connection for those who engaged in them. CONCLUSION: We discuss the implications of our findings for care systems attempting to implement a Whole Health System of Care, including how they can address postpandemic barriers to engagement in healthcare and wellness programs, and how wellness programs can be leveraged to support those most at risk after the COVID-19 pandemic and in future crises. SAGE Publications 2021-11-03 /pmc/articles/PMC8842446/ /pubmed/35174002 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/21649561211053828 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Original Article
Purcell, Natalie
Sells, Joanna
McGrath, Sarah
Mehlman, Haley
Bertenthal, Daniel
Seal, Karen H
“Then COVID happened…”: Veterans’ Health, Wellbeing, and Engagement in Whole Health Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title “Then COVID happened…”: Veterans’ Health, Wellbeing, and Engagement in Whole Health Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full “Then COVID happened…”: Veterans’ Health, Wellbeing, and Engagement in Whole Health Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_fullStr “Then COVID happened…”: Veterans’ Health, Wellbeing, and Engagement in Whole Health Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed “Then COVID happened…”: Veterans’ Health, Wellbeing, and Engagement in Whole Health Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_short “Then COVID happened…”: Veterans’ Health, Wellbeing, and Engagement in Whole Health Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_sort “then covid happened…”: veterans’ health, wellbeing, and engagement in whole health care during the covid-19 pandemic
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8842446/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35174002
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/21649561211053828
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