Gov. Tony Evers plans to help Wisconsin veterans with a new executive budget awarding millions of additional dollars to help with their mental health and educational needs.
Evers advocates for Wisconsin veterans with a new executive budget that would ensure help with their mental health and educational needs. While there is an outpour of support for the budget, there are worries about revision from the two Republican-controlled bodies of Congress.
This budget will build off of Evers’ Blue Ribbon Commission on Veteran Opportunity, which he announced during his 2022 State of the State address. In the speech, he vowed this opportunity would create new innovative initiatives to support the more than 300,000 veterans who live in Wisconsin.
Despite Evers’ recent efforts to address Wisconsin veterans’ mental health within the recent budget, there are still barriers to behavioral healthcare that need to be addressed.
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According to the National Institute for Health, the treatment gap refers to the difference between people who have a disorder and those who are treated for them. The treatment gap for people with mental disorders is more than 50% across the world. Evidently, there is a large treatment disparity between the people who have mental health disorders compared to those individuals who actually receive care for their disorders.
Most veterans are proud of fighting for their country, but when they get back from serving, they find they don’t receive a lot of support or help. In the U.S., despite the recent reduction in the number of uninsured people since the Affordable Care Act of 2010, there are still 28 million Americans lacking any type of health insurance, according to Pew Trusts.
Research from the National Center for PTSD suggests approximately 14% to 16% of U.S. veterans deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq have PTSD or depression. Additionally, veterans are often overrepresented in the homeless population due to the lack of healthcare access and the stigma surrounding mental health disorders.
Fortunately, Evers’ new budget measure will help diminish the stigma surrounding mental health for veterans. The bill includes a $1 million check annually to county and tribal veterans’ services. Most veterans receive help from their local Vet Centers, which provide counseling to veterans, active-duty service members and the families of veterans.
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Despite the proposal intended to help veterans in need, there is the worry the Wisconsin legislature will turn down his budget. Many social issues are fundamentally rooted in politics in one way or another. Issues that become public policy are often selected from the social issues society perceives.
The Republican-controlled state Legislature will spend the spring reviewing the budget before sending it to the full Senate and Assembly for approval. Wisconsin Republicans have supported some of Evers’ bills, but also tend to criticize his level of spending. The success of the bill will ultimately depend on the ability of Democrats and Republicans to work together better than they have in the past.
According to Wisconsin Watch, Evers vetoed 126 bills in the 2021-2022 legislative session from a wide variety of policy arenas. Conversely, bills pertaining to issues of abortion rights and gun control have seen little support from Republicans in the Legislature. But in order for veterans’ mental health to properly be addressed, the bill will need sufficient support to be able to address the complexity of the issue.
Intersectionality is one factor that has to be addressed when allocating mental health resources. People’s lived experiences are more multidimensional than just one identity label, and the result of systematic relationships between different identities define their position within systems as well as their own perception of the world.
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Often in policy discussions attempting to address social issues, they are approached through the lens of those whose social position has offered them a historical advantage. According to the Journal of Military, Veteran and Family Health, the “dominant culture” — the group with inherent societal power — is represented by white men.
But many veterans do not identify with the dominant culture. According to U.S. News, the number of women, people of color and disabled people becoming veterans are growing. When these groups face mental health issues, their social positions contribute to a unique, intersecting experience that must be addressed with nuance.
One way Evers’ bill addresses this intersectionality is by addressing the tribal veteran culture that is prevalent in Wisconsin. The bill includes initiatives that will increase the funding for Tribal Veteran Service Grants, helping connect veterans on tribal lands to mental health benefits.
Though the budget proposal presents real opportunities to address the intersectional challenges of veteran mental health, without support from a Republican-controlled legislature, these efforts may be hampered. Despite political challenges, Wisconsin must continue to pursue progressive mental health funding. Ultimately, everyone deserves a right to receive quality mental healthcare — especially those who have served our country.
Jayla Nimo ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in strategic communication.
