Military Stigma, Overcoming Harmful Stereotypes and Stigma to Successfully Serve the Miltary and Veteran Community

We are familiar with “wounded” warriors and “homeless” veterans but less so with student-veteran graduation rates, veteran entrepreneur success rates, and the impact of veteran volunteerism. This lens of military and veterans creates misperceptions that lead to adverse outcomes for veterans. First is negative self-perception. When veterans self-identify with negative narratives, they feel disconnected from the workforce, their financial success, and even their communities. Second is the misperception of a veteran as not belonging to the “traditional” veteran community. Veterans may perceive others as having done more, suffering more, or needing more. This disconnect can lead to a lack of service utilization as someone “needs it more.” We need to address these stigmas by altering our language to describe veterans and the services they receive. We also need to frame our services with empathy, recognize veterans’ inherent value, encourage benefit utilization, and maximize our service to a unique client population.

Speakers