Sonoma County says PTSD Combat Vets someone else's problem

PTSD home opposed for fear of ‘deranged’ vets

By Scott Lindlaw - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Mar 23, 2008 10:01:06 EDT

GUERNEVILLE, Calif. — Merry Lane, a cul-de-sac shaded by redwoods in Sonoma County wine country, would seem a pleasant place to recover from the psychic wounds of war. Nadia McCaffrey’s dream is to set up a group home there for veterans plagued by post-traumatic stress disorder.

But she is running into stiff resistance from the neighbors. They not only object to the brand-new structure itself, which looks like a four-story apartment house wedged amid their cabins, they are also worried that deranged veterans will move in.

At a community meeting in December, “one person was concerned that even firecrackers would set these people off,” said Andrew Eckers, 54, who lives across the street.

McCaffrey, whose son was killed in Iraq in 2004, said she has tried to reassure the neighbors, but “they are afraid of it because they don’t want to understand it.”

Projects similar to McCaffrey’s have cropped up in other communities across the country, with some also raising concerns from neighbors, in part because of the many news accounts of traumatized veterans committing suicide or murder.

“We’re all, frankly, failing in properly educating society about what PTSD is and what its effects are,” said Jon Soltz, an Iraq war veteran and chairman of VoteVets.org, a veterans advocacy group.

McCaffrey wants to set up at least three group homes around the country where vets with PTSD could live temporarily, and virtually for free, while they study at a college or work at a farm. Donations are paying for the projects, she said.

go here for the rest

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/03/ap_ptsdhome_032308/

Guess what? It can make someone who has survived a mud slide jump too. Did they ever think of that? It can make someone who survived fires, or hurricanes or tornadoes or violent crime do the same. Did they ever think of that? How many of their neighbors have PTSD and they don't even have a clue about them? Do they want to get rid of any neighbor who has PTSD because they were a victim of a violent crime or horrific accident too? How about a firefighter who entered into one too many burning buildings? Or a police officer who had one too many shoot outs or had just seen too much? Do they want to get rid of them too? Enough people! There are enough people in this nation who have PTSD and most of them live right next door to you already.

Prevalence and incidence statistics for Post-traumatic stress disorder:
see also prevalence and incidence page for Post-traumatic stress disorder
Prevalance of Post-traumatic stress disorder: 5.2 million adult Americans (NIMH); 3.6% adults (NIMH); about 30% of war veterans.
Prevalance Rate: approx 1 in 52 or 1.91% or 5.2 million people in USA [about data]
Incidence (annual) of Post-traumatic stress disorder: 3.6% adults annually (NIMH)
Incidence Rate: approx 1 in 27 or 3.60% or 9.8 million people in USA [about data]
Incidence extrapolations for USA for Post-traumatic stress disorder: 9,791,999 per year, 815,999 per month, 188,307 per week, 26,827 per day, 1,117 per hour, 18 per minute, 0 per second.
Prevalance of Post-traumatic stress disorder: PTSD affects about 5.2 million adult Americans. (Source: excerpt from Anxiety Disorders: NIMH)
Incidence of Post-traumatic stress disorder: About 3.6 percent of U.S. adults ages 18 to 54 (5.2 million people) have PTSD during the course of a given year. (Source: excerpt from Facts about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: NIMH)
Top
About statistics:This page presents a variety of statistics about Post-traumatic stress disorder. The term 'prevalence' of Post-traumatic stress disorder usually refers to the estimated population of people who are managing Post-traumatic stress disorder at any given time. The term 'incidence' of Post-traumatic stress disorder refers to the annual diagnosis rate, or the number of new cases of Post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosed each year.
http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/p/post_traumatic_stress_disorder/stats.htm

Yes firecrackers will make them jump! That does not mean they are any more dangerous than anyone else in the neighborhood and statistically speaking the are more apt to offer a neighbor a helping hand than to do anything wrong to them.

The attitude of people really makes me sick sometimes. They treated people with AIDS the same way thinking they would "catch" it. They wouldn't want a bunch of combat veterans living near them so they can recover from serving them? They ought to be fully ashamed of themselves.
Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.namguardianangel.blogspot.com/
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