Social agencies for several years have been aware of the problems created by the clients failure to follow through with referrals for special and continued services. More recently, psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers have focused attention upon after care for the discharged hospitalized patient. This study concerns itself with the use of after care services by the Veterans Administration Hospital's patients. The focus is on the veterans referred for after care to the Hospital Outpatient Clinic and the Mental Hygiene Clinic upon discharge from the hospital. The purpose of this study was to determine similarities and differences of those veterans. / Typescript. / "June, 1959." / "Submitted to the Graduate School of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Social Work." / Advisor: David L. Levine, Professor Directing Study. / Includes bibliographical references.

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) leaders created a Veterans First Contracting Program (VFCP) under Public Law 109-461 to provide procurement opportunities for veteran-owned small businesses (VOSBs) and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSBs). However, DVA leaders established a preference hierarchy that increased opportunities for SDVOSBs and decreased opportunities for VOSBs. Research was lacking regarding the effects of the preference policy on VOSBs as a distinct small business category. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore and understand the experiences of 20 VOSB owners actively enrolled in the VFCP from Maryland, Virginia, and District of Columbia. Through the lens of distributive justice theory, this study examined the perceptions of VOSB owners about seeking access to VFCP procurement opportunities. These perceptions were examined within a framework of fairness. Qualitative data was collected through semistructured interviews resulting in coding and thematic analysis according to Moustakas modified van Kaam method. Findings uncovered 3 major themes: (a) VOSBs perceived a benefit to VFCP enrollment, (b) preference afforded SDVOSBs affects VOSBs motivation and VFCP competition structure (c) VOSBs perceived an unfair opportunity distribution between SDVOSBs and VOSBs. The study informs government leaders of the need to improve VOSB standing as a small business group. Implications for positive social change may be realized with a policy adjustment designed to strengthen VOSB access to federal procurement opportunities because increased competition has the potential to promote DVA cost savings.

Using a combination of public institutional records and private personal records, this thesis explores how a newly emerging America constructed its ideas of physical disability in the era of the War for Independence. In the colonies, physical disability never stood alone as an independent category of difference, but was anchored in discourses of poverty and morality. However, the tumultuous events that occurred during the period 177 5 to 1818 forced this developing nation to confront physical disability to an extent that had not previously been required. The result was a conceptual and legislative shift, which caused the understanding of physical disability to be fundamentally redefined and become something identifiable in its own right. To analyse how, and why, this happened, this thesis looks at the public, cultural discourse of disability through this period, and examines the legal developments and the lived experiences that were occurring alongside it. By considering how disability was used in public commentaries to allegorise the split with Britain, it highlights the complicated environment and conceptual tumult which faced disabled Revolutionary War veterans on their return. Analysis of the trajectory of disability pension legislation suggests an infant nation testing the waters with early welfare programmes, often with limited success. However, these early initiatives were the progenitors of the first. national pension program. These developments created a distinct legal construction of disability that was seemingly at odds with the negative representation of disability in the public arena and, through medical and legal classifications, created a more formal platform for the conceptualisation of disability to emerge. To complement the institutional perspective, this thesis explores the lives of 523 disabled Revolutionary War veterans, using information they gave in their applications for a disability pension. This experiential approach expounds the ways in which disability was managed, how it shaped - and was shaped by - pre-existing expectations of gender roles, and how these experiences were often determined by class. Pertinent topics include family life, work life, and the ways in which veterans understood and employed their identities as disabled pensioners. Unlike the post-Civil War period a Revolutionary War disability never became the symbol of patriotism and bravery that the empty sleeve of the Civil War amputee did. Using the experiences of disabled former Revolutionary servicemen and contrasting this with the public discourse and national memory of the war, this thesis presents the reasons why this was the case.

Disabled veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) exist in a category separate from many civilians and soldiers. Their experiences land them in a category distinctly marked as atypical. The standard protocol to manage this atypical subject position is prescription drugs- a mark of the ill. In a distorted, post-war American society, what happens when veterans with PTSD refuse to be labeled as ‘sick,' ‘different,' or even ‘disabled'? This thesis explores the actions and intricacies of a community of veterans who advocate for medical cannabis to manage associated symptoms of PTSD. This group of veterans campaigns for individuality, both in medical treatment and in personal experience. Collaboratively, their experiential evidence indicates that none can be treated in the same fashion. After a year of participant observation and field work, it becomes apparent that their work both individualizes and unifies the veterans. This thesis details their experiences and the results of their activist campaign to demarcate themselves.

Literature review -- Methodology -- Body of project : Fire in the belly. / Dept. of Journalism