According to an annual survey of veterans’ employment and status by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, post-9/11 active-duty veterans have significantly higherย disability rates than those of prior generations.
According to an article published by MilitaryTimes.com, the Current Population Survey of 60,000 households in 2018, states that “41 percent of Gulf War-era II [post-9/11] veterans had a service-connected disability, compared with 25 percent of all veterans.”
The BLS report did not discuss the reasons behind why post-9/11 veterans have higher disability ratings than veterans of other eras. However, Dr. Nicholas Armstrong, a senior researcher at Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families, suggested several reasons. These included a higher survival rate due to advances in medicine and evacuation treatment centers, increased awareness of the effects ofย traumatic brain injuryย (TBI), and a better understanding of mental health issues resulting from post-traumatic stress. Armstrong continued by saying that advances in the ability to diagnoseย PTSDย are “another of the many drivers, I would say, of the uptick in disability rates.”
Click hereย to learn more about the finding of theย Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statisticsย report.
Relevant pages:ย Veterans Disability