Global Approaches to Supporting Mental Health and Resettlement for Veterans With Embodied Trauma: A Comprehensive Scoping Review

ABSTRACT Objectives Military veterans face significant holistic challenges when leaving military services and resettling back into the community. Recent research has shown that veterans experience higher rates of mental health difficulties than the general population and experience poorer treatment outcomes. The aim of this comprehensive scoping review was to map out the current therapeutic interventions used to support mental health care and resettlement for veterans across the globe, proposing key themes, noting any gaps and limitations. Method We followed a five‐staged scoping review protocol to map the existing landscape of the veteran mental health research literature regarding therapeutic and resettlement interventions, identifying key themes by: (1) identifying the research question, (2) identifying the relevant literature, (3) selecting the studies, (4) charting the data and (5) collating, summarising, and reporting the results. Results Results show a decline in publications regarding veteran mental health and resettlement interventions since 2018, the Americentric, ‘WEIRD’ nature of the research base, and preference for individualised, technology‐based psychological interventions, with a lack of culturally‐informed, community‐focused, relational research. Conclusion This work highlights an urgent need for further non‐Westernised research into holistic psychological interventions which relationally support the culturally diverse needs of veterans resettling back into their communities across the globe. It also advocates for a holistic bio‐psycho‐social‐sexual‐spiritual‐existential approach to the needs of each veteran, using a culturally‐informed, relational and community‐based assessment, formulation, and treatment plan for embodied trauma, moving beyond the pathologisation of dis‐ease , and mobilising the traumatised self back into the body, relationship and community.