Elisa Borah was on the Spectrum News show In Focus talking about how to support female veterans and veteran spouses. Borah talked about the Veteran Spouse Network, which encourages veteran spouses to become involved in research on veteran issues through a collaborative network of veteran families, research scientists, and service providers. Identifying and addressing veteran family issues with a patient-centered and family-led approach ensures that clinicians and researchers are focusing their efforts on projects that address not just perceived needs of the military community, but those articulated by the community itself.
Borah is a research associate professor at the Steve Hicks of Social Work within the Texas Institute for Excellence in Mental Health. In 2015, she served as the lead evaluator of statewide veterans’ mental health services, specifically examining the Texas Military Veteran Peer Network. She co-chairs the annual Military Social Work conference at The University of Texas at Austin. From 2010-2014, Borah served as director of research at the Ft. Hood site of the STRONG STAR PTSD Research Consortium, a Department of Defense’s clinical trials research consortium, within the Division of Behavioral Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Borah is engaged in research that can improve access to evidence-based behavioral health treatment in community mental health settings by veterans and their families.