Hello and welcome to Speaking of Psychology, a bi-weekly podcast from the American Psychological Association that explores the connections between psychological science and everyday life.

I'm your host, Caitlin Luna. In this episode, we're going to talk about veterans' mental health.

Having just marked Veterans Day earlier this month, it's a good time to discuss the mental

health challenges that many veterans deal with, some of the latest psychological research

into their care, and the complexities of modern warfare and its effect on veterans.

I'm joined today by Dr. Rajiv Ramchand, a fellow at the Bob

Woodruff Foundation, who researches the prevalence, prevention, and treatment of mental health

and substance use disorders in veterans and other populations, and Terry Tenelian, a senior

behavioral scientist at Rand Corporation, who researches military and veterans health policy,

military suicide, and the psychological effects of combat and terrorism. Thank you both so much

for joining us today. Thank you for having us. Yes, thank you. So first I want to start off by

talking about what are some of the most pressing mental health issues that veterans face today.

I can get us started, sure. So, you know, we need to recognize there are about 19 million

veterans living in the United States today. And it's a very diverse population. It's becoming

increasingly diverse as we see more and more women who've served in uniform. And according to national

data, we know that about 20% of veterans have a mental health problem.

And this can include a range of conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, but also

depression, bipolar disorder, and substance use problems.

We see that the rates of these conditions do vary by gender and age,

particularly associated with the era of service of those veterans. So our veterans are facing

a wide array of mental health challenges. Do you want to ask anything, Rejeeve? Sure. I would just

echo what Terry was saying that a lot of times we think of when we talk about veterans,

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