Issues in defining and measuring veteran community reintegration: Proceedings of the Working Group on Community Reintegration,VA Rehabilitation Outcomes Conference, Miami, Florida

Abstract

In January 2010, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Rehabilitation Research and Development Service convened a State of the Art (SOTA) conference to advance the field of outcome measurement for rehabilitation-related studies. This article reports on the proceedings of the SOTA Working Group on Community Reintegration. We explored the use of the International Classification of Health, Disability, and Functioning as a theoretical framework for measuring community reintegration; identified key dimensions of community reintegration that could and/or should be measured; discussed challenges in measuring community reintegration; suggested steps to enhance community reintegration measurement; proposed future research that focuses on outcomes measures for community reintegration and the study of community reintegration outcomes; and made policy recommendations that would facilitate community reintegration research within the VA.