MICHAEL W. ROBBINS, RAJEEV RAMCHAND, GRETCHEN SWABE, KELLY HYDE
America’s Post-9/11
Military and Veteran
Caregivers
I
n 2014, RAND published Hidden Heroes: America’s Military Caregivers (Ramchand et al., 2014),
commissioned by the Elizabeth Dole Foundation. Ten years later, RAND published America’s
Military and Veteran Caregivers: Hidden Heroes Emerging from the Shadows (Ramchand et al.,
2024), an updated, contemporary examination of those caring for wounded, ill, and injured
service members and veterans. That report provides contemporary insights into three research
questions: (1) the number of individuals serving in caregiving roles and how many are providing
this care to a service member or veteran; (2) what caregiving duties look like for military/veteran
caregivers; and (3) how military/veteran caregivers fare relative to each other and to non-caregivers
with respect to their health and well-being, their economic security, and their families’ well-being.
The RAND authors answered these questions with data provided by the 2023 RAND Caregiving
Survey, a probabilistic survey of U.S. households that collects detailed information from caregivers
and non-caregivers alike.
Among the findings that emerged in 2014 were the differences in the characteristics of the
estimated 1.1 million caregivers providing care to wounded, ill, and injured service members and
veterans who served after September 11, 2001, relative to the 4.4 million providing care to those
who served in the military exclusively prior to this date. Post-9/11 caregivers, as they were referred
to in the 2014 report, were younger, more likely to be Hispanic, more likely to have served in the
military themselves, and more likely to be employed than caregivers supporting pre-9/11 veterans.
The post-9/11 care recipients were also different: They were more likely to be younger and to have a
mental health or substance use condition.
Over the past ten years, the post-9/11 veteran cohort has changed: Its members have gotten
older, and their health needs have also changed; some have gotten better, and some have gotten
worse. In recognition of these shifts, Emerging from the Shadows presented data that compare care-
givers for military personnel and veterans who are 60 and under with caregivers for military per-
sonnel and veterans over 60.
There remains, however, a need to separately examine caregivers to individuals who served in
the U.S. military in the post-9/11 era. There are many organizations that serve post-9/11 veterans
and their caregivers exclusively, and so too are policies directed exclusively to this group. For exam-
ple, Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) offers the following: programs and supports for families
Research Report
