A Second Chance at Life: Local veteran tells her story of life after surviving suicide attempt
Military Matters
Author: Bary Roy
September 9, 2019
ROUND ROCK, Texas — Editor's note: This article contains depictions of sexual assault and suicide. Reader discretion is advised.
Vivianne Pearson is a United States Army veteran who proudly followed in the footsteps of her family at Fort Jackson in South Carolina.
It was while she was stationed in Fort Jackson that she says she went to get a drink with her sergeant, someone she barely knew, when he forced himself on to her.
Almost 11 years after a cry from her daughter interrupted her suicide attempt, a local vet is moving forward in life as a successful business owner in Round Rock.
"I was cornered," she said. "I was just fighting this particular sergeant off of me. It was the most scariest, intimidating, anxious experience that I've ever had to experience because I'm thinking to myself, 'Your wife is even here.'"
Pearson said that assault in 2006 shaped her military experience. She said the sergeant who assaulted her made it a point to make her life unbearable after a report was filed.
“There was a report made about the party. He thought I reported him,” she said. “But in all honesty, I didn’t. Not at all. My life was a living hell from day one after that.”
In retrospect, Pearson said she knows keeping her silence was a mistake. She believes that men and women who in those situations need to speak up and know there’s no shame in doing so.
“Unfortunately, I kept silent,” she said. “I didn’t talk about it, but I was only hurting myself internally.”
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Removing the Stigma: Ukraine Launches Suicide Prevention Hotline for Veterans
Atlantic Council
BY PETER DICKINSON
SEPTEMBER 9, 2019
According to the World Health Organization, Ukraine currently ranks eighth internationally in terms of suicide rates among the population. It is one of a staggering six post-Soviet countries to feature in the global top ten (Lithuania is in first position followed by Russia in second place, Belarus in fifth, Kazakhstan in seventh, and Latvia in ninth). This hints at a vast mental health crisis across the whole of the former USSR, making initiatives like Lifeline Ukraine even more urgent.
Ukrainian veterans take part in the March of Defenders of Ukraine as part of Ukraine's Independence Day celebrations, in Kyiv, Ukraine August 24, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenk
Autumn 2019 will see the official launch of Lifeline Ukraine, the country’s first professional suicide prevention and mental health support hotline. Recruitment of counselors has focused on Ukraine’s pool of approximately 400,000 combat veterans from the country’s undeclared but ongoing war with Russia. After completing training with international specialists in veteran mental health issues, they will begin working around the clock at the Lifeline Ukraine offices in Kyiv’s Podil district.
The launch of Lifeline Ukraine cannot come too soon. Mental health problems among former military personnel are a major social issue, and one that the country remains ill equipped to address. Prior to the Russian invasion of 2014, post-Soviet Ukraine had no experience of dealing with the trauma of military conflict, or of providing support for those left damaged by war. This was just one of the many ways in which Ukraine was completely unprepared for the onset of Russian aggression. Understandably, the country initially focused attention on defending itself against the immediate military threat, but the accompanying mental health challenges created by the conflict have since made themselves abundantly apparent.
There are no exact figures available for the number of suicides among Ukrainian military personnel and veterans, but experts believe at least 900 have taken their own lives since the start of hostilities five-and-a-half years ago.
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Stupid stigma of PTSD is missing link
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 9, 2019
When I first began to research PTSD, it was for very selfish reasons. I was falling in love with a Vietnam veteran. The more I learned about PTSD, the more I loved him. Simple as that.
That was 37 years ago, and we are celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary this month. Anyone who still suggests that having PTSD is something to be ashamed of, remind them there is no shame in being a survivor.
Researchers in Colorado found that most veterans did not seek help for PTSD because of the stigma attached to it.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - A new study released by the Colorado Health Institute last week focused on veterans and suicide, and why the rate in Colorado is higher than the nation's. The study found that nearly seven out of 10 veterans in Colorado who did not receive the mental health care they needed reported stigma-related reasons as a barrier. That's nearly double the percentage compared to non-veterans.
Who put the stigma there? Who gave it such great power that it can prevent veterans from asking for help?
The thing is, what works would work a lot better, if what failed was no longer allowed to get in the way.
While the Veterans Crisis Line has helped reduce the number of veterans completing suicide, it is an example of how bad it actually is for veterans.
Since its launch in 2007, the Veterans Crisis Line has answered more than 3.9 million calls and initiated the dispatch of emergency services to callers in crisis more than 119,000 times. The Veterans Crisis Line anonymous online chat service, added in 2009, has engaged in nearly 467,000 chats. In November 2011, the Veterans Crisis Line introduced a text messaging service to provide another way for Veterans to connect with confidential, round-the-clock support and since then has responded to nearly 123,000 texts.
If the VA Crisis Line was not there, the numbers we are seeing would be even higher. A lot of the programs the VA has work great, but the majority of veterans in this country do not use the VA for anything. Again, there is a stigma attached to that too. (see below)
We know that suicide awareness does not work.
Letting veterans know they are killing themselves makes no sense at all. If the goal is to educate the civilian community, again, it makes no sense since the number of civilians committing suicide has also increased. It seems to only benefit those doing the events to raise money and gain fame. How? Because according to the VA, the known number of veterans committing suicide has remained between 20 and 22 since 1999...when no one was making citizens aware it was happening and there were over 5 million more veterans alive at the time.
This stuff also gets in the way.
While we are trying to #breakthesilence to prevent suicide, it seems that some have embraced it.
Silent Watch Raises Awareness For Veteran Suicide
They want people to stand in silence for 15 minute shifts. Silence contributed to the end of those who lost hope.
With the VA Crisis Line being reached by almost 4 millions calls, now members of congress are pushing for a three digit number.
Advocates Hope For A 'Turning Point' In Suicide Prevention With 988 Crisis Hotline Number "Samaritans has one of three call centers in Massachusetts that receive calls from the national hotline, which can currently be accessed by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255). Samaritans also receives calls and texts from its own local hotline number, 1-877-870-HOPE (4673)."
Will it help? Maybe but as long as the stigma is there, it will not help as many as it could.
There needs to be a massive effort addressing the stigma itself, because if they actually understand what PTSD is, then the stigma dies...but they stay alive.
Most veterans do not understand that PTSD is not self-inflicted. It hit them! The only way to get PTSD is surviving something traumatic. The term itself means "after wound" and just a bonus reminder, trauma is Greek for wound.
As survivors, they already beat death once. More than likely they did not accomplish that on their own. They had help fighting that enemy and need help to fight this enemy too!
Veteran ordered to pay back thousands in VA benefits
WEAR 3 ABC News
by Auriette Lindsey
September 3rd 2019
PENSACOLA, Fla. (WEAR-TV) — A veteran from Santa Rosa County has been sentenced to three years probation and must pay thousands of dollars in restitution.
The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, Lawrence Keefe, announced the sentence on Tuesday.
46-year-old Bryan S. Gaines of Milton pleaded guilty to theft of government money and making false statements.
Between 2011 and 2018, he falsely reported to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that he was not working and unable to work.
He received disability benefits based on those claims.
A federal judge ordered Bryan Gaines of Milton to repay $243,243.05 in restitution after he pleaded guilty to making false statements. (Image: MGN)
Keefe said, "Stealing from the VA is tantamount to stealing from each of the brave men and women who have served our nation in times of war and times of peace."
Gaines was ordered to pay $243,243.05 in restitution.
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These 2 women are the first sisters ever to become Army generals
CNN
Mallory Hughes
September 7, 2019
(CNN)The US Army has plenty of famous examples of generals who were brothers. But sisters? Now that's another story.
Maj. Gen. Maria Barrett presenting Brig. Gen. Paula Lodi a beret with one-star rank insignia as a tribute to the history of women serving in the Army and the historic moment of sisters serving together as General Officers.
Maj. Gen. Maria Barrett and younger sister Brig. Gen. Paula Lodi became what the Army believes to be the first pair of sister generals.
Because women sometimes change their last names after marriage, the Army would have had to look at every single woman general, as well as their siblings, to compare names and determine if they were sisters.
An Army spokesperson told CNN that it wasn't possible to do that.
"But since there haven't been that many women generals, it's a safe bet that they're the first," the spokesperson said.
The military didn't start accepting women into its ranks until the Army Nursing Corps was established in 1901.
Maj. Gen. Barrett is the Commanding General of NETCOM. She graduated from Tufts University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in international relations and was commissioned through the Army ROTC program as a Second Lieutenant in 1988.
Her younger sister, Brig. Gen. Lodi, was promoted in July and is the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations at the Office of the Surgeon General. She is a Distinguished Honor Graduate of the Naval War College and has master's degrees in public administration, military arts and science, and national security and strategic studies.
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