Posts Tagged ‘post traumatic stress’

Family Members of Veterans Need Support Too

Since the horrible events on September 11, 2001, almost 2 million troops have served in combat in Iraq or Afghanistan. According to the Invisible Wounds of War Study, independently conducted by the RAND corporation, approximately 300,000 of those soldiers will be diagnosed with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) is the coming years. Thankfully, there is a nationwide increase in awareness concerning PTSD and this looming mental healthcare crisis as a result of many recent television and newspaper reports. This awareness, however, must be transformed into concrete action – real-life, easy-to-find resources and support for our nation’s heroes as well as their family members.

Family members who care for veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder are an often forgotten segment of society which is greatly in need of help. From personal experience, as the wife of an Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) Veteran who was diagnosed with PTSD, I have been amazed by the lack of worthwhile information and support for the loved ones of our vets. Many families are pushed to the point of breaking by PTSD without knowing how or even why they should get help. Comprehensive care for combat veterans must include adequate information and counseling services for their family members.

There are many reasons care should be offered to family members. First, many caregivers often develop “Secondary” PTSD. This disorder (which is still not recognized by many in the mental health community, but most spouses who care for a Vet with combat PTSD can tell you absolutely exists), occurs when an individual who lives under the daily strain and uncertainty associated with living with a PTSD sufferer, begins to develop and exhibit symptoms of PTSD themselves. With several people living under one roof who are suffering from primary or secondary Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, an already difficult situation can become unbearable.

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Vietnam Veteran’s America

See our heroes of today, homeless, hungry, in pain, and suffering. Thousands of Veterans are there, their hopes snuffed out by a Veterans Administration that is bogged down, understaffed, untrained, and has a poor attitude towards the job they attempt to perform. This is the Vietnam Veteran’s America, the country they fought for, bled for, and often died for. After Vietnam, veterans are suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress, Agent Orange afflictions, diseases, and have families that do not have enough money to bury them, and then there’s the Veteran’s Administration that does not care.

Believe this is not happening? Believe that this country has not turned it’s back of our Veterans? Then think again. Story after story, day after day, month after month, year after year Veteran’s wait in line, their hopes diminished, the Veteran’s Administration denies their claims, hoping they give up, or die.

Within most large cities is a Veteran’s Administration Regional Office, such as the Regional Office in Phoenix, Arizona. Hundreds of claims are processed there; very few are approved at the initial level. The reason? The Veteran will give up, will not wish to keep up the years of fighting it takes to get their claim approved, or they die before it happens. When a claim is submitted, there is already a problem with the Veteran. He is suffering from Agent Orange Exposure, Post-Traumatic Stress, or even worse. In other words he is dying, fast or slow, but dying. Yet it can take up to eight years for a claim to be approved, eight years. Does anyone actually believe it takes eight years to approve a claim? Generally, it takes over a year just to get to the first level. Then, it takes another year or so to appeal. Finally, the Veteran has to go to court which takes another year or so, sometimes much more. All this time the Veteran has to collect information on his own even though it’s the law the Veterans Administration must help, they rarely do. Further, the Veteran has to pay for medical expenses, over and over, for the Regional Office keeps sending letters, wanting more information, over and over it happens, each and every month.

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Wounded Veterans Face Battles Back Home

I opened my eyes as I recognized my sister’s voice. I had fallen asleep as we drove home through Waterville, and hadn’t noticed the middle-aged veteran standing by the side of the road. I looked back and saw a middle-aged man holding a sign which, as she told me, said “disabled veteran.”

As we continued down the highway, I began to think about all that his presence symbolized. He was probably a Vietnam vet, I thought. Is that what’s going to happen to all the vets who are just coming home? I thought about the floods of physically, mentally, and emotionally wounded soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan to overwhelmed, under-funded Veterans Administration (VA) hospitals.

To me, that one man standing by the highway represented one of the many tragic results of what is now a nationwide problem: the funding crisis in America’s VA system.

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