{"id":342,"date":"2015-09-02T01:06:36","date_gmt":"2015-09-02T01:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/veteranslawproject.org\/?p=342"},"modified":"2015-09-02T01:06:36","modified_gmt":"2015-09-02T01:06:36","slug":"high-veteran-population-density-in-carroll-coos-county-demonstrates-need-for-vlp-outreach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vfnh.org\/veteranslawproject\/2015\/09\/02\/high-veteran-population-density-in-carroll-coos-county-demonstrates-need-for-vlp-outreach\/","title":{"rendered":"Unmet Needs for Veterans Law Outreach in Rural NH"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Veterans Law Project serves veterans throughout New Hampshire finding a particular unmet need in rural areas. \u00a0\u00a0Deployed January of 2015, the Veterans Law Project\u00a0<em>Legal Boots on the Ground<\/em> has served over 260\u00a0veterans so far this year by providing direct legal representation, office consultation and referral services. \u00a0Outreach to the north country is limited where we have been able to serve twenty veterans from Coos, Grafton and Carroll counties. \u00a0Fewer than a dozen attorneys serve Coos County,<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> making outreach to northern New Hampshire a priority where:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Over over 15% \u00a0of Coos County residents are veterans, similarly, Carroll county has about 14% veteran population. \u00a0This figure is almost double the national <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">7.3 percent of all living Americans who have served in the military at some point in their lives.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Coos County is home to approximately 4000 New Hampshire veterans. \u00a0\u00a0This figure does not include the over 9% \u00a0estimated federal and state prison populations reporting veteran status. \u00a0Over 71% are estimated to \u00a0have served in at least one war.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">About 27.4 % are between ages 35-54<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">About 25.1 % are between ages 55-64<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">About 21.3 % are between were 75 years or older<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) Survey of Inmates in local jails (2002) data indicates that 9.3% of people incarcerated in jails are Veterans. \u201cThe controlling offense for 70% of these Veterans was a non-violent crime, and 45% had served two or more state prison sentences. At minimum, 90,000 of the 9 million unique inmates annually released from U.S. jails are Veterans. A large majority, 82% are eligible for VA services, having been discharged either under honorable (65%) or general with honorable (17%) conditions. BJS reported in 2006 that 60% of all U.S. jail inmates had a mental health problem. As of 2005, only one in six jail inmates with a mental health diagnosis had received mental health treatment since incarceration.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mental health is a strong indicator of homelessness, unemployment, domestic unrest and criminal behavior. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">About 1 in 5 veterans experience PTSD. \u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">About 20% of returning OIF and OEF \u00a0veterans turn to heavy drinking or drugs. \u00a0An estimated 20% of veterans have TBI. \u00a0\u00a0Possible consequences of this internal injury include anger, suicidal thoughts, and changes in personality.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">About 3.6-6.5% veterans will face or have faced divorce. \u00a0This number is expected to increase upon separation of service, when troops return home and is as high as 8% among women.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Approximately 260 Coos County veterans may be unemployed, a precursor to homelessness, whereas <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">veterans are twice as likely as other Americans to become chronically homeless. <\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Veterans represent 11% of the adult civilian population, but 26% of the homeless population, according to the Homeless Research Institute (2007). \u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The number of homeless Vietnam-era veterans, male and female, is greater than the number of soldiers who died during the war.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Only about 32% of homeless veterans have VA benefits. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Approximately 4.4 percent of veterans report poverty status<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 2010, an average of 22 veterans committed suicide every day. \u00a0\u00a0The group with the highest number of suicides was men ages 50 to 59.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u00a0The estimated annual suicide rate is 29.5 per 100,000 veterans withv one veteran lost every 65 minutes.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u00a0Military records are often not kept after retirement, meaning data may not represent the total number of veteran suicides. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">NH Bar Association Membership Directory 2015<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">www.nhes.nh.gov\/elmi\/products\/documents\/vet-fact-sheet.pdf<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sociology of the Military Veteran\u2019s and the Criminal Justice System<\/span><br \/>\nhttp:\/\/www2.nami.org\/template.cfm?section=mental_illnesses1<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.military.com\/daily-news\/2015\/02\/25\/military-divorce-rate-hits-lowest-level-in-10-years.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">www.military.com\/daily-news\/2015\/02\/25\/military-divorce-rate-hits-lowest-level-in-10-years.html<\/span><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www2.nami.org\/Content\/NavigationMenu\/Inform_Yourself\/About_Public_Policy\/Policy_Reports\/ParityforPatriots.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">www2.nami.org\/Content\/NavigationMenu\/Inform_Yourself\/About_Public_Policy\/Policy_Reports\/ParityforPatriots.pdf<\/span><\/a><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">www.latimes.com\/nation\/la-na-veteran-suicide-20150115-story.html<\/span><br \/>\nhttps:\/\/www.dosomething.org\/facts\/11-facts-about-mental-health-our-troops<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Veterans Law Project serves veterans throughout New Hampshire finding a particular unmet need in rural areas. \u00a0\u00a0Deployed January of 2015, the Veterans Law Project\u00a0Legal Boots on the Ground has served over 260\u00a0veterans so far this year by providing direct legal representation, office consultation and referral services. \u00a0Outreach to the north country is limited where [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-veterans-family-law","category-veterans-law","category-vlp-legal-boots-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vfnh.org\/veteranslawproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vfnh.org\/veteranslawproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vfnh.org\/veteranslawproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vfnh.org\/veteranslawproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vfnh.org\/veteranslawproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vfnh.org\/veteranslawproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vfnh.org\/veteranslawproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vfnh.org\/veteranslawproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vfnh.org\/veteranslawproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}