FROM FRAGMENTED SERVICES TO CONTINUOUS RECOVERY PATHWAYS: A PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION MECHANISM FOR SERVICE MEMBERS AND VETERANS IN UKRAINE

Abstract

The transition of service members and veterans from military service to civilian life is frequently governed through separate medical, psychological, social, employment and administrative systems. This article argues that the principal public-administration problem is not the absence of individual services but the fragmentation of the pathway connecting them. Drawing on the dissertation model of comprehensive psychosocial recovery, the study develops an organisational and legal mechanism of continuous support centred on the principle “one person – one comprehensive assessment – one individual plan – one responsible coordinator”. The mechanism treats continuity as a managed public process beginning before discharge and extending through confirmed case transfer, integrated needs assessment, coordinated service delivery, monitoring, reintegration and long-term follow-up. Particular attention is given to the boundary between military and civilian systems, where changes in legal status, institutional responsibility, financing and data governance create a high risk of pathway disruption. The article specifies the functions of a responsible coordinator, the logic of transfer with acceptance and closed-loop referral, the legal role of an integrated individual plan, and the need for a federated digital architecture based on data minimisation and role-based access rather than a centralised super-register. Performance is assessed through continuity, timeliness, functional change, social and professional reintegration and quality of life rather than service volume alone. The proposed mechanism does not subordinate all providers to a single authority and does not replace clinical or professional judgement. Its purpose is to make autonomous sectoral systems interoperable around a person-centred pathway and to create an adaptive feedback loop linking individual outcomes to programme, financing and regulatory decisions.

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