Valentine's Day Message for Veterans With PTSD

February 14 and 914 post on Wounded Times. Most of them have been on PTSD. This blog has only been up for six months. I've already done 130 for February alone and there are still not enough hours in the day to cover every report coming out on PTSD, but I try my best.

Why do I do it? Because I fell in love with a Vietnam veteran who has been suffering for his service since 1970. He came home in 1971 but was not diagnosed until 1990, not treated until 1993 and didn't have his claim approved until 1999. Not only do I understand what PTSD is, I've lived with it, researched it, fought for care for it, seen the worst of it and then arrived to the point where hope became real. My husband is proof it's never too late to get help with PTSD. My marriage, 23 years and counting is proof families do not have to break apart. Once a veteran gets through the system and their claim is approved, the VA takes great care of them but there is only so much they can do given the fact the backlog of claims, over worked staff and under-prepared administration is trying to play catch up. The veterans are suffering.

Since this is Valentine's Day, since I do this for the love of Jack, my husband, and all the veterans dealing with PTSD, I couldn’t think of a better day to ask for the rest of this nation to finally, once and for all, eliminate the stigma of PTSD and treat it like the wound it is.

These are from the posts I put up this morning. They will give you an idea of what they are up against.

333,000 US Casualties: Are They Covered?
By Maya Schenwar
t r u t h o u t Report

Thursday 14 February 2008

As Iraq and Afghanistan war casualties soar to unprecedented levels, Bush's 2009 Veterans Affairs' budget comes up short.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will treat about 333,000 sick and injured veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in 2009, according to VA statistics released last week. That number is a 14 percent increase over this year's casualty total.

But that’s not all the veterans with PTSD. This next report should cause a very loud alarm.

Florida National Guard to launch program on suicide
Fla. Guard to launch program on suicide
The aim is to provide mental health help to returning troops.
By William R. Levesque, Times Staff Writer
Published February 14, 2008


In the military, telling someone they might need to see a psychiatrist is not always an easy sell.

Few admit depression because they think it's a career ender.

That's a barrier the Florida National Guard says it wants to eliminate.

If they do not get treated for PTSD, it adds to the homeless issue. While not all homeless veterans have PTSD or related problems, these veterans make up the majority of the homeless population.

These are headlines on homeless veterans from the blog world just for today.

Homeless Veterans All Over Blog World Today

HELLO February 08...
DAV Charitable Service Trust supports physical and psychological rehabilitation programs, meets the special needs of veterans with specific disabilities

Arizona Standdown for Homeless Veterans
By Doris Do you realize there are between 200000 and 300000 homeless veterans on the streets in this country at any given day of the year?

Military Vets to protest Bill O'Reilly and FOX News
By Rob(Rob) A delegation of homeless veterans from Fitzgerald House, an organization that provides housing and assistance to veterans, visited FOX News two weeks ago to hand deliver the petition, signed by over 18000 people.

Homeless Veterans Are in the Lurch
By contact@veteransforcommonsense.org (Steve Vogel ) A dilapidated shelter for homeless veterans is set to be leveled to make way for development on the sprawling grounds of the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Northwest Washington, leaving a nonprofit veterans group scrambling

115. The Pipeline
By wanderingvet Dear Readers: The Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development make a clear distinction between Sheltered and Unsheltered Homeless.

The Faces of Hawaii's Homeless
Hawaii Reporter - Kailua,HI,USAThe National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) estimates than there were nearly half a million homeless veterans in 2006

Port Angeles man receives state's Outstanding Veteran Volunteer award
Peninsula Daily - Port Angeles,WA,USALee directs the state Department of Veterans Affairs. McKeown, he said, helped found Voices for Vets, a Clallam County group that helps homeless veterans

Vets: Back from the war but not home
Red Bank Hub - NJ, USAAt right, plants, books, DVDs and photos of family and his canine companions decorate the apartment of a formerly homeless veteran

Homeless veterans left in lurch by plans to raze shelter
Boston Globe - United States(kevin clark/washington post) WASHINGTON - A dilapidated shelter for homeless veterans is set to be leveled

Put all this together with the report I posted yesterday and you get closer to the extent of the problems these veterans are facing on a daily basis.

VA claim backlog at 816,211 but IT cut back? WTF
Vets' groups urge IT budget boost for benefits processing
By Bob Brewin bbrewin@govexec.com February 13, 2008
Veterans' services organizations have urged Congress to provide a sharp increase in the information technology budget of the agency that handles their compensation and pension claims.
The fiscal 2009 IT budget request for the Veterans Benefits Administration is about 18 percent less than the fiscal 2008 proposal. The overall IT budget for the Veterans Affairs Department, VBA's parent agency, jumped 18 percent in President Bush's latest request.

VBA's pending compensation and claims backlog stood at 816,211 as of January 2008, up 188,781 since 2004, said Kerry Baker, associate legislative director of the Disabled Veterans of America, during a Wednesday hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.

There are still some people in this country who lack the capacity to put themselves in someone else’s shoes. I wounded how people like Bill O’Reilly would feel if he had been one of them dealing with the fact they served this country and then had the country treat them as if they had the nerve to expect their wounds would be treated with respect and dignity from a “grateful” nation? Does he even ever consider the fact they would not be wounded, would not need to be taken care of if they did not serve? Does he ever really come close to appreciating their service? No and he’s not alone.

The stigma of PTSD is born out of an attitude that is contagious. If all people hear is that homeless veterans are all drug addicted, alcoholics, lazy, looking for a free ride, cowards, along with every other name in the book they’ve been called, that’s all they know. Yet little by little tiny blogs like mine, linked with thousands of other people across the country, are beating this stigma out of the minds of the ignorant. One day there will be no excuse for anyone denying what PTSD and what the cause of it is but today is not that day. We have such a long battle ahead of us for their sake before they are all taken care of like Jack is.

Often people ask me why I care so much. Since we met 25 years ago, Jack has been the love of my life and I see all veterans through his eyes.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all the veterans and to the troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. You are loved and one day, God willing and citizens willing, we will finally prove it to all of you.

Love,
Kathie