Researchers with the Public Policy Research Institute (PPRI) at Texas A&M University teamed with State of Texas leaders and veteran-serving organizations across the Lone Star State to help Texas veterans by identifying their most pressing needs and hurdles to meeting them while also pinpointing emerging issues in both areas.
PPRI Research Scientist Dr. Nandita Chaudhuri has been working since May 2023 in collaboration with the Texas Veterans Commission (TVC) to complete a yearlong Texas Veterans Needs Assessment study aimed at identifying the top service needs and associated barriers for Texas veterans across the state. She and her fellow PPRI research team members recently were invited by both the TVC and the Defense and Veterans’ Affairs Committee of the Texas Legislature to present their study findings and provide legislative testimony on identifying veteran needs and barriers along with their proposed recommendations to inform possible solutions.
Chaudhuri notes that this needs assessment is mandated by the Texas Legislature every four years to help set priorities for the TVC’s Funds for Veteran Assistance (FVA) grants that allocate resources to Texas veterans. With that goal in mind, she and her team conducted surveys and focus groups across the state’s eight FVA regions, amassing nearly 18,500 valid responses from Texas veterans and another 507 from veteran-serving organizations throughout the state and meeting virtually with 15 groups composed of 139 veterans and 131 organizational representatives.
Data-Driven Findings
In their final analysis, Chaudhuri’s PPRI research team determined that Texas veterans’ top service needs are mental health counseling, business training and alternative therapy, while their top service barriers include not understanding benefits and qualifications, not knowing where to get help and the limits posed on their time due to their life responsibilities. Mental health counseling specifically arose as a top need in almost every FVA region. In addition, the top sources of information from where veterans receive service information were identified as internet searches, the TVC website and Veterans Administration Healthcare.
Among the Texas veterans, Chaudhuri says there were some notable groups that were identified as particularly disadvantaged. Women veterans along with Black and Hispanic veterans reported higher levels of need than male and white veterans in many FVA regions. Additionally, low-income and unemployed veterans as well as veterans with disabilities reported specific needs that were less common with higher income, employed veterans.
When it comes to accessing the FVA grants provided by TVC, Chaudhuri says her team learned that most organizations in Texas have not even applied for funds to serve veterans due in part to the challenging application process. Organizations in the focus groups and surveys highlighted additional barriers in applying for TVC grants, including unclear expectations, a burdensome reporting process, budget inflexibility, stringent eligibility requirements and slow reimbursements. More than half of the organizations surveyed indicated they receive other external funding to serve veterans.
In addition to breaking the responses down by respective FVA region to better triangulate veteran needs and barriers within all eight, Chaudhuri says her team did a comparative analysis of their 2024 assessment with their most recent one conducted in 2020. While employment services and short-term financial assistance needs have generally decreased, she says these needs remain high for the disadvantaged groups, including disabled, low-income, minority, women and/or homeless veterans. In addition, while healthcare support remains a priority need as in 2020, mental health counseling and integrative therapies were identified as highly reported needs in the current study along with rehabilitation of homeless veterans and their financial support as an emerging key-need area.
Chaudhuri says lack of awareness and knowledge regarding available services and how to access those services remain the top service barriers as consistent with the 2020 study findings. Although internet searches and social media use have increased, she notes that veterans report they still have concerns with the TVC website, specifically its lack of maneuverability, navigability and user friendliness.
Actionable Takeaways
As their final and potentially most critical step in the project, Chaudhuri and her team identified seven actionable recommendations to better serve the Texas veterans as follows:
- prioritize healthcare support
- address veteran rehabilitation
- creatively diversify outreach
- ensure service quality and consistency
- uphold service equity
- provide adequate transition counseling
- conduct data-driven outcome evaluation of FVA grants
“These recommendations need to be navigated cautiously with the ever-changing landscape of Texas veterans’ needs in mind," Chaudhuri said. "The Public Policy Research Institute deeply appreciates all the veterans and veteran-serving organizations who took the time to respond to our online surveys and who graciously participated in the regional focus groups to share their experiences and opinions. Our research team is honored to assist the Texas Veterans Commission in its mission of serving the Texas veterans and their families.”
In addition to Chaudhuri, the PPRI study team members included Andrea Sesock, Anthony Jackson, Ashleigh Williams, Megumi Tanabe, Dr. Theresa Hernandez, Ziqiao Chen and Zack Brattin.
The PPRI was established in 1983 by the Texas Legislature as a special-item appropriation to provide relevant scientific research to the Texas Legislature as well as various federal, regional, state and community agencies actively engaged in determining public policy. During the last 40-plus years, PPRI personnel have successfully designed and implemented scientifically sound research strategies that have examined the effectiveness of existing governmental programs and policies, providing scientific foundations to help policy makers in the development of new policies and programs.
Read the complete 2024 report, including specifics for each FVA region, or learn more about the Texas Veterans Commission and related programs and resources.