Soldiers with combat experience wanted as counsellors

Soldiers with combat experience wanted as counsellors, therapists


ARGHANDAB DISTRICT, Afghanistan — Cpl. Darrell Rostek has been there and done that.

Now almost half way into his fourth overseas tour with its mad kaleidoscope of intense and sometimes bloody experiences, Rostek also knows what it's like to go home, almost lose himself and finally pull himself up by the boot straps.

He had served three times in Bosnia before coming to Afghanistan.

It's the kind of experience very few have, one that those who've been through it find tough to convey, especially to someone who hasn't been there.

The Defence Department is planning a pilot program to encourage soldiers who have done to tours abroad to take up mental-health counselling.

Rostek, who expects to do one more six-month tour of Afghanistan in 2009, says he's very interested in pursuing the opportunity as a way to give back to the guys and gals who have watched his back, literally and figuratively.

"I want to get into counselling because it's someone who's roughly my own age group and they can see I've been there," he said in a recent interview at an undisclosed forward operating base.

"We can talk about things we may have done, things we may have seen ... we've got some common ground with what we've done. We've shared the same Earth."

Rostek, a Winnipeg native, freely admits he had a problem with drinking after serving in Bosnia - something he has now licked.

The Canadian military has poured more resources and emphasis into mental health programs and counselling since the Afghan war became more intense two years ago.

Over the next couple years, $98 million has been set aside to improve post-traumatic stress care for soldiers returning from the battlefield, including hiring more psychiatrists and social workers.

An additional $9 million is going into opening more operational stress injury clinics across the country.

Auditor General Sheila Fraser issued a stern rebuke last year to the Department of National Defence over the way it has handled mental-health programs, especially the practice of out-sourcing care to civilian centres.

The military's surgeon-general and chief of personnel expressed frustration to a House of Commons committee last winter, saying one of the biggest impediments is actually getting soldiers to come forward and talk about their experiences.

Rostek says he know why.

He says some of the civilian counsellors and even military ones back in Canada have never done overseas tours.

Rostek acknowledges he's generalizing, but he says many of the social workers to whom soldiers are expected to pour out their hearts are women in the late 40s or 50s.

"It's more like looking at Mom, talking about your problems," said Rostek, 34, a rifleman in 7 Platoon, Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.

If soldiers were doing the counselling instead, he said, they would not be regarded as just a stranger.

The opportunity to move into counselling involves four years of schooling and a degree, paid for by the military, followed by a four-year period as a uniformed counsellor.

Rostek says one downside is that he would be promoted to an officer - something he believes could potentially put some distance between him and ordinary soldiers.

The army has given soldiers in each unit limited training to help them spot post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, among their buddies. If someone is showing signs, it's the job of these individuals to encourage their friends to seek help.

Early intervention is seen as the key to battling PTSD.

A Veterans Affairs Canada report noted that the number of former soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress has more than tripled since Canada first deployed troops to Afghanistan.

The Commons defence committee is studying post traumatic stress treatment in the military.
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