Returning combat troops, new vets, families targeted

Half of the National Guards men and women have PTSD but local help is not there. Over and over again we read reports of guardsmen/women, coming back and not getting the help they need.

There are too many people in this country with the assumption the VA is supposed to take care of them. While it is a proper assumption to make considering most of the population of this country simply assume it is being done, not feeling equally obligated is not helping the situation too many face. We need to step up until the government gets it's act together because the veterans are suffering.

The other part that really gets to me is most of the groups forming now have little interest in helping the older veterans and their families. At this time when PTSD reported by the media has finally begun to sink into the brains of the older veterans that have been suffering without a clue why, no one seems to be willing to step up for their sake. We have a sub-class of wounded walking around feeling yet again abandoned and ignored by the rest of the nation. We need to stop this attitude as well. They all served the under the same flag and should be taken care of equally.

Raising an army of counselors
San Diego Union Tribune - San Diego,CA,USA
Returning combat troops, new vets, families targeted
By Rick Rogers (Contact) Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. January 2, 2009

Locally and across the country, grass-roots groups and major organizations are launching or expanding mental health services for returning combat troops, new veterans and their families.
They hope the free or low-cost counseling, mentoring and other forms of outreach will fill in gaps left by the military and Department of Veterans Affairs. The goal is to prevent combat stress, post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries from causing long-term depression, alcoholism, homelessness, criminal activity and marital or parenting problems.
“(We) want to preclude what happened with many of the Vietnam War vets,” said Bob Zimmerman, president of the nonprofit group We Thank Our Troops and a self-described “house dad” to Marines and soldiers recovering from war wounds at the San Diego Naval Medical Center.
Increased corporate donations are helping his charity broaden its work, which includes assembling care packages, visiting patients and coordinating special outings for service members and their loved ones.
Statistics suggest that a significant number of combat veterans suffer from mental problems, particularly as the Iraq and Afghanistan wars persist and repeated deployments become standard issue.
In the past few years, independent studies and reports from the Pentagon have concluded that service members need more pre-and post-deployment mental screenings, greater access to counseling and drug treatment in the war zone, a better realization that it's good to seek post-combat therapy and a smoother transition of mental health services between the active-duty military and the VA.
A 2007 study by the Pentagon found that 38 percent of soldiers, 31 percent of Marines, 49 percent of Army National Guard members and 43 percent of Marine reservists reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression or other mental problems.
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