Brain Injury Can Hurt Employment Prospects for Veterans

Veterans who have suffered a traumatic brain injury during combat are much less likely to find a job when they return home, compared to veterans who did not suffer an injury.

The consequences of a traumatic brain injury during combat may continue to follow a veteran for months, and even years later. Traumatic brain injury is associated with a higher risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition that can impair a person mentally, and leave him with symptoms of depression, trauma, and anxiety. Now a new study finds that veterans, who return home with a traumatic brain injury, find themselves less employable than their colleagues, with no history of brain injury. The research finds that these veterans with a brain injury find it much harder to find and keep a job.

The research was based on an analysis of 67 veterans, who suffered a brain injury during combat duty. These persons were compared to a group of 67 veterans who had no injury. Approximately seven years after the head injury, 36% of veterans who had a brain injury continued to be unemployed. However, in the control group, the rate was just about 10%. After 8 to 11 years, that gap between the veterans with a brain injury and without a brain injury, increased significantly to 50% for veterans with a brain injury and 7% for veterans without a brain injury. In other words, the employability of a veteran with a brain injury continues to drop over the years, until a point where more than half of brain injured-veterans have no job.

The researchers were looking at whether the brain injury impaired the person’s ability to get the job as well as his marital relationship. The study found that marital rates among both groups were the same, but the unemployment rates differed significantly.