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The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of rural older veterans in the US and discuss how the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is increasing access to health care for older veterans in rural areas.

This is a descriptive paper summarizing population and program data about rural veterans.

VA provides a variety of health care services and benefits for older veterans to support health, independence, and quality of life. With the creation of the Veterans Health Administration Office of Rural Health (ORH) in 2006, the needs of rural veterans, who are on average older than urban veterans, are receiving greater attention and support. ORH and VA have implemented several programs to specifically improve access to health care for rural veterans and to improve quality of care for older veterans in rural areas.

This paper is one of the first to describe how VA is addressing the health care needs of older, rural veterans.

The purpose of the study was to determine whether prior military service impacts police officers' job-related attitudes.

A survey was administered to sworn police officers in a large urban department.

Findings indicate that military service has almost no impact on police officers' perceptions of danger in the community and suspicion toward citizens. The small effect that did surface suggests that military veterans perceive less danger in the occupational environment.

This study contributes to the scant existing research on whether and how military service may impact police officers' attitudes; in particular, it speaks to the concern that veterans bring a warrior mentality to the job. Findings suggest that these fears are not founded.

Police agencies commonly give preferential hiring to military veterans. Current findings suggest that this practice does not threaten police–community relations.

Scant research has examined the impact of military experience on police officers' job-related attitudes and specifically on their perceptions of danger and their suspicion of citizens. Additionally, when military service is included in police studies, it is operationalized as a binary yes/no. Here, the authors parse service into different components for a more nuanced examination.

This study aims to examine consumers’ patriotism, attitudes toward veterans and attitudes and behaviors toward businesses that honor veterans. The goal is to determine if consumers are more or less likely to support businesses that offer veterans preferential treatment.

The conceptual model proposed is tested using an online survey with a nationwide sample. Data are analyzed using partial least squares structural equations modeling.

Results indicate that consumer attitudes toward businesses that honor veterans fully mediate the impact of consumer attitudes toward veterans on behavioral intentions. This suggests that veterans’ discounts or preferential treatments are viewed as a viable means by which consumers can show their support for veterans. Further, results reveal that patriotism has a direct effect on consumers’ behavioral intentions toward businesses that honor veterans.

Businesses routinely offer discounts targeted to specific consumers, such as the elderly and children. These results show that providing discounts to veterans can offer multiple benefits to businesses as well. Positive attitudes toward businesses that honor veterans can lead to positive behavioral intentions from consumers who seek to support veterans.

Despite the existence of businesses honoring veterans by providing discounts or preferential treatment, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, little to no research has investigated the impact that these discounts provide to businesses.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between independent director military service and monitoring effectiveness, focusing on chief executive officer (CEO) compensation.

The authors identify independent directors with military experience using BoardEx data. The authors focus on the level of CEO compensation. The methods used include panel data estimation, propensity score matching analysis and instrumental variable analysis.

The authors find more powerful CEOs are more likely to appoint independent directors with past military service to the board. Boards with a larger proportion of independent directors with military experience tend to award higher levels of CEO compensation. Moreover, the positive relationship between independent directors with military experience and executive compensation is stronger when the CEO is more powerful.

This paper examines a relatively unexplored director background, directors with military experience, and finds this type of independent director is associated with weak monitoring. The authors contribute to the literature examining the effect of executive and board member military experience on corporations. The authors identify weak monitoring of powerful CEOs as a potential weakness of directors with military experience. This drawback should be considered before appointing a director with military experience to the board.

Expanding on earlier research, this paper aims to develop a more complete understanding of military experience as it relates to stress and burnout in law enforcement. The current study examines whether influences on stress and burnout vary between officers with military experience and officers without a military background.

Data for this study were obtained from earlier research on police staff at a Northeastern metropolitan city. A combination of analytic methods, including t‐tests and multivariate regression analysis, were used to explore the effects of variables on stress and burnout among military and non‐military officers.

The results indicate that negative exposures to demanding events influenced burnout for all officers. In contrast, negative exposures affected stress levels for those officers with no military experience. Coping techniques were important predictors of stress and burnout for both groups; however, contrary to expectations, police experience in years was not significant in any model. Demographic controls had no influence on stress and burnout for either group, with the exception of gender, which was a significant predictor of stress only for the non‐military group.

This research has implications for police departments interested in developing group‐based strategies for reducing stress and burnout among officers. The findings are limited in their capacity for wide geographical generalization, however, because this study represents the views of only one department.

In contrast with previous empirical work, the findings here demonstrate that military experience can have a favorable influence on the work outcomes of police officers. This study suggests that officers with military backgrounds are less stressed when faced with demanding situations and that military experience provides female officers with an edge in handling work‐related stressors.

This study was designed to determine if health care provider utilization of cardiac medications has been influenced by the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) ischemic heart disease (IHD) guidelines dissemination. Retrospective chart reviews were conducted on a random sample of 1,397 IHD patients at six VA hospitals. Use of IHD medications was high even in the pre‐IHD guideline period, which may explain the lack of observed differences between the pre‐ and post‐guideline dissemination eras.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate provider outcomes in response to two modes of suicide prevention training (e-learning and in-person) and a control group. The Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS) was adapted for e-learning delivery to US Veterans Administration mental health providers. Outcomes include: self-evaluated beliefs, ability, and self-efficacy in managing suicidal patients.

This study used a multicenter, randomized, cluster design to test the effectiveness of e-learning vs in-person conditions CAMS for changes in provider outcomes.

Survey scores showed significant improvements for both the e-learning vs control and the in-person vs control between pre-intervention and post-intervention; however, the e-learning and in-person conditions were not significantly different from each other.

Limitations of the study include that there were drop-outs over the study period and the survey questions may not have captured all of the aspects of the CAMS training.

Results suggest that e-learning training modules can provide comparable outcomes to in-person training for suicide prevention.

More providers may have accessible training materials for managing suicidal patients.

Currently practicing providers now can choose between two equivalent training modalities for improving the management of suicidality in their patients.

Opioid use disorder (OUD) poses a national public health challenge including for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). However, the responsiveness of VHA, as a centralized national health care system, to local conditions has not been studied. The purpose of this paper is to examine the correlation of measures of population-based OUD case identification and provision of opioid agonist treatment (OAT) in VHA and in local systems at the state level thus evaluating the responsiveness of VA as centralized health system to local conditions.

Correlation of VHA administrative data and local survey data reflecting OUD and OAT rates were evaluated with Pearson correlations. Further analyses examined the correlation of VHA and non-VHA OUD and OAT measures with state rates of opioid-related deaths, median income, health insurance coverage and education levels.

VHA rates of OUD and OAT at the state level were both significantly correlated with corresponding state data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (r=0.28, p=0.048 and r=0.71, p=0.002, respectively). Both OUD and OAT in VHA were positively and significantly correlated with state rates of opioid-related deaths, while indicators of OAT were significantly associated with higher state-level median income, health insurance coverage and levels of education.

Although centrally managed from Washington, D.C., VHA case identification and OAT service delivery appear to be correlated with relevant local measures.

Significant associations with general population indicators point to underlying conditions that may shape both VHA and local health system performance.

Public health systems would benefit from performance evaluation data to examine responsiveness to local conditions.

Little is known about the gender profile of callers to crisis hotlines, despite distinct gender differences in suicide risk and behavior. The authors assessed current knowledge of the role of caller gender in the use of crisis hotlines for suicide, specifically whether there are differences in frequency, reason for call and caller outcomes by gender.

The authors conducted a scoping literature review of peer-reviewed studies published since 2000 in Medline, PubMed and PsychInfo, examining a total of 18 articles based on 16 studies.

Overall, women represent a higher percentage of calls to crisis hotlines worldwide, despite men having higher rates of suicide. Primary reasons for calling hotlines were the same for men and women, regardless of geography or culture. When gender differences in reason for call were reported, they were consistent with literature documenting gender differences in the prevalence of risk factors for suicide, including higher rates of substance use among men and higher instances of domestic violence/abuse among women.

There was variability in the studies the authors examined. This review was limited to research on crisis telephone hotlines and did not include text or chat services. Due to data reporting, the findings are constrained to reporting on a male/female gender binary.

Findings on gender differences in crisis line use suggest a need for continued research in this area to determine how to best meet the needs of callers of all genders.

The purpose of this research was to examine which factors increase the risk of post-traumatic stress in police officers to assist with identifying strategies that will minimize its occurrence.

This study of constabulary and non-constabulary members of the New Zealand Police has been based on an 80-question electronic survey, which was sent to all serving, resigned and retired members of the New Zealand Police Association, which number approximately 18,000. The survey included a series of questions that measured the post-traumatic stress that participants experienced.

Variables associated with post-traumatic stress were examined using logistic regression modeling techniques. The study found that post-traumatic stress was prevalent among serving, resigned and retired police members and exposure to trauma, especially prolonged exposure, was significantly associated with post-traumatic stress. More than 49% of participants were found to have some post-traumatic stress symptoms and more than 14% of participants indicated a presumptive clinical diagnosis of post-traumatic stress.

The limitations of the research included not include questions relating to the Social Provisions Scale (SPS) and General Health Questionnaire, nor did it include police officer recruits. A further limitation was that it was a cross-sectional study.

An understanding as to which variables influence or increase post-traumatic stress disorder is important for police officers and the police institution. The findings from this study indicate that exposure to trauma is strongly associated with high levels of post-traumatic stress, while good sleep and relaxation decrease the influence of such variables.