Navy vet reaches out to help others with PTSD

Navy vet reaches out to help others
Southtown Star - Chicago,IL,USA

December 21, 2008

BY LAUREN FITZPATRICK Staff writer
Mark T. Hicks knows how mental illness can tear a family apart.

He's seen how soldiers from his own family returning from war have suffered - whether their malaise is called shell shock, or battle fatigue, or post-traumatic stress disorder.


He's afraid the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs isn't prepared to deal with thousands of vets returning from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, or with their families.

And he has the professional chops to do something about it.

So Hicks, a Navy vet who was too young to fight in Korea and too old to go to Vietnam, is offering a few hours a week of free counseling to military members and veterans and to their immediate families.

The licensed clinical social worker already has taken pro bono patients from south suburbs such as Tinley Park during the 10 years he's lived in Chicago, and he's looking to help more men and women in uniform.
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