Families of wounded military veterans struggling to cope and make ends meet
6 hours ago
CALGARY — They are the invisible victims of Canada's military efforts around the world.
The families of wounded soldiers released from active duty due to severe disabilities are poorer, less healthy and less socially active, says a study prepared for Veterans Affairs Canada.
It's a growing problem as Canadian soldiers continue to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan and help keep the peace in global hot spots.
Soldiers who can no longer serve in the military receive full pensions, but the University of Alberta study suggests their families still struggle.
A Canada-wide review involved 142 wounded soldiers and 115 of their caretakers and paints a painful picture of what life is like at home.
"I tend to try to be positive, not negative, (but) ... I feel robbed because all our lives he has been ill, can't sit, walk, or stand too long," wrote one of the anonymous respondents.
The soldiers surveyed were between 25 and 65, were suffering full impairment to most of their bodies and were often battling emotional, psychiatric and psychological conditions.
The study found financial pressures and an overwhelming and relentless sense of responsibility for the caregiver.
"You don't dwell on it. You ... try to think of something good every day. You just try to keep going," wrote another woman. A few years ago I had to write a letter to Veterans Affairs and I thought, 'Oh my God. This is my life."'
The report, titled "Wounded Veterans, Wounded Families," revealed high levels of need for the severely disabled veterans and their families, many of whom were also trying to earn a living and raise young children.
"Are they suffering? Absolutely. And suffering in ways that their lives have been changed," said Norah Keating, a professor of human ecology, who co-authored the report with colleague Janet Fast.
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Sunday, June 29, 2008
Veterans Prayer Project
Lew Poorman sent me a link to his sites about praying for the wounded and for the troops as well as veterans.
Veterans Prayer Project
http://paratrooperprayers.tripod.com and http://veteransprayers.tripod.com
Often we may say that we will pray for someone, but then when we begin to pray, we just don't find the right words. To God, it is not a matter of the words we use as much as it is what is in our hearts. These sites may help you to find the words to begin to pray for yourself or for others.
PTSD:Treating Wounds You Can't See
Treating Wounds You Can't See
By Linda Blum
Sunday, June 29, 2008; Page B01
On the wall in my office at Fort Dix, N.J., hung a row of nature photos and some historical documents for my patients to look at: a land grant signed by James Madison, another signed by Abraham Lincoln's secretary in his name, a Lincoln campaign ballot. The soldier from Ohio studied the wall carefully. It was amazing, he said, how much the layout of those picture frames resembled the layout of the street in Tikrit that was seared in his memory; the similarity had leapt out at him the first time he came in for a session. He traced the linear space between the frames, showing me where his Humvee had turned and traveled down the block, and where the two Iraqi men had been standing, close -- too close -- to the road.
"I knew immediately something was wrong," he said. The explosion threw him out of the vehicle, with his comrades trapped inside, screaming. Lying on the ground, he returned fire until he drove off the insurgents. His fellow soldiers survived, but nearly four years later, their screams still haunted him. "I couldn't go to them," he told me, overwhelmed with guilt and imagined failure. "I couldn't help them."
That soldier from Ohio is one of the nearly 40,000 U.S. troops diagnosed by the military with post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2003 to 2007; the number of diagnoses increased nearly 50 percent in 2007 over the previous year, the military said this spring. I saw a number of soldiers with war trauma while working as a psychologist for the U.S. Army.
In 2006, I went to Fort Dix as a civilian contractor to treat soldiers on their way to and return from those wars. I was drawn by the immediacy of the work and the opportunity to make a difference. What the raw numbers on war trauma can't show is what I saw every day in my office: the individual stories of men and women who have sustained emotional trauma as well as physical injury, people who are still fighting an arduous postwar battle to heal, to understand a mysterious psychological condition and re-enter civilian life.
As I think about the soldiers who will be rotating back home from Iraq this summer as part of the "pause" in the "surge," as well as those who will stay behind, I remember some of the people I met on their long journey back from the war.
click post title for more
By Linda Blum
Sunday, June 29, 2008; Page B01
On the wall in my office at Fort Dix, N.J., hung a row of nature photos and some historical documents for my patients to look at: a land grant signed by James Madison, another signed by Abraham Lincoln's secretary in his name, a Lincoln campaign ballot. The soldier from Ohio studied the wall carefully. It was amazing, he said, how much the layout of those picture frames resembled the layout of the street in Tikrit that was seared in his memory; the similarity had leapt out at him the first time he came in for a session. He traced the linear space between the frames, showing me where his Humvee had turned and traveled down the block, and where the two Iraqi men had been standing, close -- too close -- to the road.
"I knew immediately something was wrong," he said. The explosion threw him out of the vehicle, with his comrades trapped inside, screaming. Lying on the ground, he returned fire until he drove off the insurgents. His fellow soldiers survived, but nearly four years later, their screams still haunted him. "I couldn't go to them," he told me, overwhelmed with guilt and imagined failure. "I couldn't help them."
That soldier from Ohio is one of the nearly 40,000 U.S. troops diagnosed by the military with post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2003 to 2007; the number of diagnoses increased nearly 50 percent in 2007 over the previous year, the military said this spring. I saw a number of soldiers with war trauma while working as a psychologist for the U.S. Army.
In 2006, I went to Fort Dix as a civilian contractor to treat soldiers on their way to and return from those wars. I was drawn by the immediacy of the work and the opportunity to make a difference. What the raw numbers on war trauma can't show is what I saw every day in my office: the individual stories of men and women who have sustained emotional trauma as well as physical injury, people who are still fighting an arduous postwar battle to heal, to understand a mysterious psychological condition and re-enter civilian life.
As I think about the soldiers who will be rotating back home from Iraq this summer as part of the "pause" in the "surge," as well as those who will stay behind, I remember some of the people I met on their long journey back from the war.
click post title for more
Memorial tattoo helps heal after Lake County twisters
After fatal Lake County twisters, families reunite, hearts begin to heal
Stephen Hudak Sentinel Staff Writer
June 29, 2008
LAKE MACK - Becky Nolan said it took a tattoo needle to finally mend her broken heart.The Lake County woman who lost her husband, Billy, and 7-year-old son, Jake, to the tornado that spun into their home on Cooter Pond Road said tattoos of her boy's face have provided her a peace she hadn't felt since the storm hit Feb. 2, 2007."It was so hard just getting through every day. I worried I might lose his pictures or that someday I'd forget what he looked like," she said, her eyes wet with tears. "Now, whenever I look in the mirror, I see his smile."She said the tattoos of Jake near her heart and on her thigh also may have helped to stitch together another tattered family.
click above for more
Six Flags death of teenager may have been caused by lost hat
Cannot imagine the shock of the family and church group as well as the people on the ride when this happened. I hope Six Flags has the wisdom to have trauma workers on staff for when things like this happen.
SC teen struck, killed by Six Flags coaster in Ga.
Associated Press
Published: Saturday June 28, 2008
AUSTELL, Ga. — A teenager was decapitated by a roller coaster after he hopped a pair of fences and entered a restricted area Saturday at Six Flags Over Georgia, authorities said.
Six Flags officials are uncertain why the unidentified 17-year-old from Columbia, S.C. scaled two six-foot fences and passed signs that said the restricted area was both off-limits and dangerous to visitors, spokeswoman Hela Sheth said in a news release.
Authorities were investigating reports from witnesses who said the teenager jumped the fences to retrieve a hat he lost while riding the Batman roller coaster, said Cobb County police Sgt. Dana Pierce. Three security guards were keeping visitors away from the ride on Saturday.
go here for more
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/SC_teen_struck_killed_by_Six_0628.html
Mary's House offers women a chance at recovery, rebirth
Mary's House offers women a chance at recovery, rebirth
By Chandra Broadwater, Times Staff Writer
In print: Sunday, June 29, 2008
BROOKSVILLE
It was early Easter morning in 2006. Wendy Anderson lay in an Ocala field, bloody and battered, while paramedics pushed on her chest to get a heartbeat. Someone had heard her screams in the darkness and called 911. Police arrived to find a man on top of her naked body, raping her. She had been stabbed and hit in the head. Anderson had put herself in the path of danger with another round of crack cocaine and liquor. Home was a seedy motel room. She needed a ride, and got into a car with a strange man. That she survived his brutality is a miracle. That she is now getting her life back together is a testament to a special place many miles from that attack, in a peaceful, tree-shaded renovated farmhouse off Howell Avenue in Brooksville. A place called Mary's House. Anderson, 41, has been here since April. She's sober now and leaves no doubt how she feels about Hernando County's first and only women's shelter.
"I shouldn't be alive," she said. "But for some reason, I am. I know it's God's will that I'm at Mary's House."
go here for more
http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article649543.ece
By Chandra Broadwater, Times Staff Writer
In print: Sunday, June 29, 2008
BROOKSVILLE
It was early Easter morning in 2006. Wendy Anderson lay in an Ocala field, bloody and battered, while paramedics pushed on her chest to get a heartbeat. Someone had heard her screams in the darkness and called 911. Police arrived to find a man on top of her naked body, raping her. She had been stabbed and hit in the head. Anderson had put herself in the path of danger with another round of crack cocaine and liquor. Home was a seedy motel room. She needed a ride, and got into a car with a strange man. That she survived his brutality is a miracle. That she is now getting her life back together is a testament to a special place many miles from that attack, in a peaceful, tree-shaded renovated farmhouse off Howell Avenue in Brooksville. A place called Mary's House. Anderson, 41, has been here since April. She's sober now and leaves no doubt how she feels about Hernando County's first and only women's shelter.
"I shouldn't be alive," she said. "But for some reason, I am. I know it's God's will that I'm at Mary's House."
go here for more
http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article649543.ece
Orlando's Pathways mental-health center is crumbling, needs a hand
Orlando's Pathways mental-health center is crumbling, needs a hand
Kate Santich Sentinel Staff Writer
June 29, 2008
Edwin Hernandez spent a year and a half living in a tent in the woods, battling clinical depression.Then he found a place where he could eat, wash his clothes, take a shower and connect with people who became like family.It also helped him get on medication, move into an apartment and earn his GED. Hernandez, 24, recently started taking interior-design courses.Pathways, an Orlando drop-in center for the mentally ill, has helped hundreds of people like Hernandez get their lives turned around.
click above for more
Kate Santich Sentinel Staff Writer
June 29, 2008
Edwin Hernandez spent a year and a half living in a tent in the woods, battling clinical depression.Then he found a place where he could eat, wash his clothes, take a shower and connect with people who became like family.It also helped him get on medication, move into an apartment and earn his GED. Hernandez, 24, recently started taking interior-design courses.Pathways, an Orlando drop-in center for the mentally ill, has helped hundreds of people like Hernandez get their lives turned around.
click above for more
Court sides with church in demon case
Court sides with church in demon case
Texas Supreme Court says it can't decide religious doctrine in teen exorcism case.
By Chuck Lindell
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, June 28, 2008
The Texas Supreme Court, showing continued deference to religious practice, on Friday tossed out a $188,000 judgment against members of a Pentecostal church who restrained a teenager they feared had come under demonic influence.
Laura Schubert claimed that rough handling during the hours-long 1996 incident — involving the "laying on of hands" and intensive prayer — left her disabled by post-traumatic stress disorder.
Jurors agreed, finding that Schubert, then 17, was falsely imprisoned and assaulted by a pastor, youth minister and members of Pleasant Glade Assembly of God church in suburban Fort Worth.
However, the state Supreme Court dismissed Schubert's case in a 6-3 ruling, saying her lawsuit violated the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protections on religious expression — the latest in a string of decisions limiting judicial oversight of religious institutions and practice.
"The case, as tried, presents an ecclesiastical dispute over religious conduct that would unconstitutionally entangle the court in matters of church doctrine," said the majority opinion, written by Justice David Medina.
A dissent by Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson, joined in part by two other justices, said the Pleasant Glade decision improperly confers sweeping immunity to those who "merely allege a religious motive."
Wrote Jefferson: "The First Amendment guards religious liberty; it does not sanction intentional abuse in religion's name."
go here for more
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/06/28/0628exorcism.html
linked from
http://theapostolicreport.wordpress.com/2008/06/28/
court-sides-with-church-in-demon-case/
Texas Supreme Court says it can't decide religious doctrine in teen exorcism case.
By Chuck Lindell
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, June 28, 2008
The Texas Supreme Court, showing continued deference to religious practice, on Friday tossed out a $188,000 judgment against members of a Pentecostal church who restrained a teenager they feared had come under demonic influence.
Laura Schubert claimed that rough handling during the hours-long 1996 incident — involving the "laying on of hands" and intensive prayer — left her disabled by post-traumatic stress disorder.
Jurors agreed, finding that Schubert, then 17, was falsely imprisoned and assaulted by a pastor, youth minister and members of Pleasant Glade Assembly of God church in suburban Fort Worth.
However, the state Supreme Court dismissed Schubert's case in a 6-3 ruling, saying her lawsuit violated the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protections on religious expression — the latest in a string of decisions limiting judicial oversight of religious institutions and practice.
"The case, as tried, presents an ecclesiastical dispute over religious conduct that would unconstitutionally entangle the court in matters of church doctrine," said the majority opinion, written by Justice David Medina.
A dissent by Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson, joined in part by two other justices, said the Pleasant Glade decision improperly confers sweeping immunity to those who "merely allege a religious motive."
Wrote Jefferson: "The First Amendment guards religious liberty; it does not sanction intentional abuse in religion's name."
go here for more
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/06/28/0628exorcism.html
linked from
http://theapostolicreport.wordpress.com/2008/06/28/
court-sides-with-church-in-demon-case/
Amputees:Hero and his Harley
ROBERT CRAIG / THE NEWS JOURNAL VIA GANNETT NEWS SERVICE
Rob Kislow shows off his prosthetic leg while sitting on his motorcycle at Independence Prosthetics Orthotics in Newark, Del., on June 9.
Young amputees put prosthetics to work
By Kristin Harty - The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal
Posted : Sunday Jun 29, 2008 9:33:34 EDT
NEWARK, Del. — Bob Kislow arrived on a Harley, his high-tech prosthetic leg hidden beneath blue jeans and steel-toed boots.
Turning heads with his Mohawk and tattoos, Kislow strode with an even gait into the prostheticist’s office, a visit he’ll make regularly for the rest of his life.
Just 22, the Army veteran lost his lower right leg in 2005 after being shot five times by a sniper during a 10-hour firefight in Afghanistan.
Three years later, he’s back on his feet in earnest. He’s gone skydiving and rock climbing, played paintball, raced motorcycles and golfed.
He changes artificial legs like most people change socks.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/gns_amputees_062808/
Barack Obama quietly visits wounded war veterans
Barack Obama quietly visits wounded war veterans
Published: 6/28/08, 1:25 PM EDT
By SARA KUGLER
WASHINGTON (AP) - Barack Obama stopped by Walter Reed Army Medical Center Saturday to visit wounded war veterans, a group that he has said endures substandard care under the Bush administration.
The presumed Democratic nominee, who was in Washington to speak to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, spent about two hours inside the facility. On his way in and out, he did not speak to the small group of reporters who follow him, and the visit wasn't on his public schedule.
Obama has criticized the Bush administration for its treatment of veterans returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and has suggested Republican rival John McCain would continue Bush policies if elected.
The administration was roundly criticized last year after it was revealed that veterans at Walter Reed were housed in rundown accommodations and suffered neglectful care.
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Published: 6/28/08, 1:25 PM EDT
By SARA KUGLER
WASHINGTON (AP) - Barack Obama stopped by Walter Reed Army Medical Center Saturday to visit wounded war veterans, a group that he has said endures substandard care under the Bush administration.
The presumed Democratic nominee, who was in Washington to speak to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, spent about two hours inside the facility. On his way in and out, he did not speak to the small group of reporters who follow him, and the visit wasn't on his public schedule.
Obama has criticized the Bush administration for its treatment of veterans returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and has suggested Republican rival John McCain would continue Bush policies if elected.
The administration was roundly criticized last year after it was revealed that veterans at Walter Reed were housed in rundown accommodations and suffered neglectful care.
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Agent Orange:Vietnam veterans urged to seek testing
Vietnam veterans urged to seek testing
By William Johnson • wjohnson@dailyworld.com • June 29, 2008
Link Savoie, a well-known local veteran's advocate, has recently been diagnosed with CLL, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a cancer of the white blood cells.
While the diagnosis is scary, Savoie said he is fortunate for several reasons. The first is that CLL is a slow growing form of cancer. Many people with CLL lead normal and active lives for many years - in some cases for decades.
"My doctors tell me if I have to have one, this is the one to have," Savoie said.
But the most important reason is that, after years of court battles by veterans' groups, the disease is now listed as one of 11 that can be caused by exposure to Agent Orange, a herbicide widely used during the Vietnam War.
As a result, the Veteran's Administration offers compensation and disability payments to sufferers in addition to help with its treatment.
go here for more
http://www.dailyworld.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080629/NEWS01/806290303/1002
By William Johnson • wjohnson@dailyworld.com • June 29, 2008
Link Savoie, a well-known local veteran's advocate, has recently been diagnosed with CLL, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a cancer of the white blood cells.
While the diagnosis is scary, Savoie said he is fortunate for several reasons. The first is that CLL is a slow growing form of cancer. Many people with CLL lead normal and active lives for many years - in some cases for decades.
"My doctors tell me if I have to have one, this is the one to have," Savoie said.
But the most important reason is that, after years of court battles by veterans' groups, the disease is now listed as one of 11 that can be caused by exposure to Agent Orange, a herbicide widely used during the Vietnam War.
As a result, the Veteran's Administration offers compensation and disability payments to sufferers in addition to help with its treatment.
go here for more
http://www.dailyworld.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080629/NEWS01/806290303/1002
Vets Back Expanded Family Mental-Health Care
Vets Back Expanded Family Mental-Health Care
Kelly Kennedy
Army Times
Jun 28, 2008
June 27, 2008 - A bill designed to provide mental-health services to family members of service members with non-service-connected disabilities received full support from veterans’ service organizations, as well as the Veterans Affairs Department.
"Many [veterans] are not rated as service-connected because they have not yet applied for benefits, or because of the length of time it takes VA to produce a decision on a claim," said Christopher Needham, senior legislative associate for Veterans of Foreign Wars. He testified June 26 before the House Veterans’ Affairs subcommittee on health.
He explained that counseling for family members helps them understand their veteran’s health issues, as well as how to support the veteran through it.
"We have seen with this conflict — especially with mental-health issues — that families are at the forefront of providing care and easing the service member’s transition back into civilian life," Needham said.
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ArticleID/10526
Kelly Kennedy
Army Times
Jun 28, 2008
June 27, 2008 - A bill designed to provide mental-health services to family members of service members with non-service-connected disabilities received full support from veterans’ service organizations, as well as the Veterans Affairs Department.
"Many [veterans] are not rated as service-connected because they have not yet applied for benefits, or because of the length of time it takes VA to produce a decision on a claim," said Christopher Needham, senior legislative associate for Veterans of Foreign Wars. He testified June 26 before the House Veterans’ Affairs subcommittee on health.
He explained that counseling for family members helps them understand their veteran’s health issues, as well as how to support the veteran through it.
"We have seen with this conflict — especially with mental-health issues — that families are at the forefront of providing care and easing the service member’s transition back into civilian life," Needham said.
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ArticleID/10526
Military, civilian leaders faulted for Iraq aftermath
While we should be concerned for the welfare of all the men and women deployed into Iraq and Afghanistan, we need to pay more attention to the National Guard forces and Reservists.
What they thought they were getting into when most of them joined.
It also reports that Army National Guard and Reserve soldiers have demonstrated in Iraq and Afghanistan that they "are a fully capable, and indeed, an absolutely essential part of the Army." But it warns that "the price paid by reservists and communities to sustain the long and repetitive mobilizations, however, may not be sustainable in the future."
Army's History of Iraq After Hussein Faults Pentagon
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 29, 2008; Page A03
A new Army history of the service's performance in Iraq immediately after the fall of Saddam Hussein faults military and civilian leaders for their planning for the war's aftermath, and it suggests that the Pentagon's current way of using troops is breaking the Army National Guard and Army Reserve.
The study, "On Point II: Transition to the New Campaign," is an unclassified and unhindered look at U.S. Army operations in Iraq from May 2003 to January 2005. That critical era of the war has drawn widespread criticism because of a failure to anticipate the rise of an Iraqi insurgency and because policymakers provided too few U.S. troops and no strategy to maintain order after Iraq's decades-old regime was overthrown.
Donald P. Wright and Col. Timothy R. Reese, who authored the report along with the Army's Contemporary Operations Study Team, conclude that U.S. commanders and civilian leaders were too focused on only the military victory and lacked a realistic vision of what Iraq would look like following that triumph.
go here for more of this
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/28/AR2008062802427.html
What they thought they were getting into when most of them joined.
National Guard helps shore up Ottumwa sub-station
With water levels rising rapidly in Ottumwa by the hour, one of the city’s power sub-stations was in danger of being overrun. However, thanks to nearly 100 National Guard Soldiers, this central power supply was rescued through the construction of a three-foot tall levee...June 19, 2008
Air National Guard works to corral Mississippi
The men and women of the 185th Air Refueling Squadron from Sioux City, Iowa, are teaming with local farmers to maintain the 20 miles of levees, keeping the flooded Mississippi from inundating the 14 thousand acres of homes and farmland here...June 19, 2008
Guard ratchets up Missouri mission; tackles floods in five states
Missouri was the latest Midwest state to see increasing numbers of National Guard Citizen-Soldiers and –Airmen on duty in the face of the region’s worst flooding in 15 years...June 20, 2008
Guard aircraft, aircrews battling California wildfires
Army and Air National Guardmembers from California and North Carolina were supporting firefighting efforts in Northern California today following a state active duty call up by Gov. Arnold Schwarznegger and a request for airborne firefighting assets by the Interagency Fire Center...June 24, 2008
North Carolina Air National Guard fights California wildfires
The North Carolina Air National Guard deployed four C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft with flight crews and support personnel to Northern California June 23 to assist the U.S. Forest Service and the governor in firefighting efforts to contain, control, and extinguish wildfires...June 25, 2008
Fighting floods and fires, National Guard on duty from coast-to-coast
National Guard Citizen-Soldiers and –Airmen fought Midwest flooding and California fires Thursday...June 26, 2008
National Guard Bureau chief: Firefighting and flood efforts “outstanding”
Assessing the National Guard’s California fire and Midwest flood-fighting efforts first-hand Thursday and Friday, the chief of the National Guard Bureau visited adjutants general and troops in impacted states....June 27, 2008
These reports are just from the this month. When they are helping the nation deal with natural disasters, they are able to still do their other jobs. Their jobs are what they base their personal budgets on. Often their incomes do not come close to taking care of their financial needs when they are deployed. This adds to the stress they are under when they are deployed into foreign lands. While it may be true they are highly trained to do their assigned jobs while deployed, they are not trained as fully as the regular military for the rest of what they have to go through.
When they come home, they return to family and friends, jobs they had (provided the jobs are still there) and are expected to pick up where they left off. Some return to businesses as craftsmen, offices, laborers, while others return to law enforcement positions and fire departments. They are expected to return the same way as they would if they were simply doing the same kinds of duties they carry out on our own soil, not unlike the reports above. Yet when they come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, the long absences, they also carry with them the traumas of combat.
We have neglected their needs even more than we have neglected the needs of the regular military. At least when their deployment is over, they return with their brothers in arms by their side and have a watchful eye on them if there should be readjustment problems. The citizen soldiers however return to the lives they had before, the extra strain on their finances, families unaware of the wounds they carry within and no one around them able to understand.
Too often they return with PTSD, but as hard as it is to understand what they went through deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, it is nearly impossible for others to understand the signs of wounds they cannot see. VA clinics and hospitals are too far away to get to on a regular basis for many of these soldiers. Civilian mental health providers do not all understand PTSD. Civilian doctors are also lacking knowledge of this wound and the physical illnesses spawned by PTSD. Local clergy are unaware of the wound, the strain on marriages as well as the spiritual wound that needs to be addressed. This is where the communities need to step up for the sake of the citizen soldiers. Why isn't this happening?
Local providers are trained to focus on all the problems civilians endure. While they can address some of the issues these citizen soldiers face, they cannot address the central issue to all of the problems, which is the horrors of war. We cannot keep neglecting their needs. We cannot keep treating them like the rest of the citizens.
This report on the mistakes made regarding Iraq and the increase of the Taliban's capabilities in Afghanistan should raise a red flag warning these occupations will go on much longer than civilians planned on requiring the more deployments of the citizen soldiers as well as their families. National Guard forces are reporting rates of PTSD at around 50%, yet they receive less help than regular military men and women receive. The citizen soldiers only have their communities to depend on in return for us depending upon them.
Even when they are returning to jobs usually associated with traumatic events, law enforcement and emergency responders, often their own commanders are unaware of PTSD at the levels deployments raise the risk of and depth of this wound. Again, they need more attention than civilian forces never deployed receive.
If we do not address the additional needs of the citizen soldiers, they will suffer needlessly. This is a moral duty for all of us as well as a financial one for every community across the nation.
Un-addressed PTSD leads to the break up of families, drug and alcohol use as self-medication, crimes, homelessness and suicides. This puts a strain on the finances of the local governments as they must deal with arrests, drunk driving, accidents, crimes, violence, domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, growing need for health services in mental health care as well as the physical illnesses extreme stress causes. Reliance on social services are increased. This also leads to reduced incomes as all too often the citizen soldier's wound is neglected to the point they can no longer function on their jobs. We've already seen evidence of all of this because we still have not come to the awareness of PTSD in the citizen soldiers.
When are we going to do it? When will local officials put out an emergency call to all the people in their communities to address this? When will programs be in place across the nation to take care of them? When will the local clergy and physicians be educated to deal with the burdens the citizen soldiers carry? While the plans for the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq found fault with the military and civilian planners, what is happening to the citizen soldiers is also caused by the same officials and lack of planning.
Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos
International Fellowship of Chaplains
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Sen. Kotowski, Alexian Unveil Program Aimed At PTSD
Reaching Out To Veterans
Kotowski, Alexian Unveil Program Aimed At PTSD
By TOM ROBB
Journal Reporter
A new program to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) for returning veterans was unveiled at Alexian Brothers Hospital Wednesday.
State Sen. Dan Kotowski (D-33d) of Park Ridge attended. His bill helped fund the program.
Physicians at Wednesday's press conference explained that new state of the art equipment recently brought online at the hospital is helping doctors tell the difference between PTSD and traumatic brain injuries.
"The one thing we can agree on is that we need to honor our veterans in a better way," said Kotowski.
Kotowski said the Pentagon identified 40,000 veterans who have sought treatment for PTSD. He explained that some groups estimate the true number of veterans suffering the condition is closer to 300,000.
Kotowski said through technology PTSD can be detected physically and not just through psychological examination.
go here for more
http://www.journal-topics.com/eg/08/eg080625.1.html
Kotowski, Alexian Unveil Program Aimed At PTSD
By TOM ROBB
Journal Reporter
A new program to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) for returning veterans was unveiled at Alexian Brothers Hospital Wednesday.
State Sen. Dan Kotowski (D-33d) of Park Ridge attended. His bill helped fund the program.
Physicians at Wednesday's press conference explained that new state of the art equipment recently brought online at the hospital is helping doctors tell the difference between PTSD and traumatic brain injuries.
"The one thing we can agree on is that we need to honor our veterans in a better way," said Kotowski.
Kotowski said the Pentagon identified 40,000 veterans who have sought treatment for PTSD. He explained that some groups estimate the true number of veterans suffering the condition is closer to 300,000.
Kotowski said through technology PTSD can be detected physically and not just through psychological examination.
go here for more
http://www.journal-topics.com/eg/08/eg080625.1.html
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