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Tsai J, Rosenheck RA, Decker SE, Desai RA, Harpaz-Rotem I. Trauma experience among homeless female veterans: correlates and impact on housing, clinical, and psychosocial outcomes. Journal of traumatic stress. 2012 Dec 1; 25(6):624-32.
Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects. This study examined lifetime exposure to traumatic events as reported by 581 homeless female veterans enrolled in a Homeless Women Veterans Program across 11 sites to characterize the types of trauma they experienced; their correlation with baseline characteristics; and their association with housing, clinical outcomes, and psychosocial functioning over a 1-year treatment period. Almost all participants endorsed multiple types and episodes of traumatic events. Among the most common were having someone close experience a serious or life-threatening illness (82%) and rape (67%). Exploratory factor analysis revealed 6 potential trauma categories: being robbed, experiencing accident or disasters, illness or death of others, combat, sexual assault, and physical assault. At baseline, trauma from sexual assault was associated with more days homeless ( = .18, p < .001), trauma from accidents or disasters was associated with poorer physical health ( = -.23, p < .001), and trauma from being robbed was related to greater use of drugs ( = .22, p < .001). Trauma reported at baseline, however, was not predictive of 1-year outcomes, suggesting type and frequency of trauma does not negatively affect the housing gains homeless women veterans can achieve through homeless services.
