For troubled vets, a hard road to healing

This article mentions how a Chaplain did not address suicide. This is very troubling. Considering how many suicides there are with the troops and veterans, it should be out in the open. Many are dealing with the fact someone they knew committed suicide.

There was a time when discussion of PTSD was taboo. Anyone talking about it was verbally assaulted by the uniformed and opinionated never once considering how PTSD strikes and does not come from within. They blamed the wounded.

Now, even while most people are finally becoming aware of what this wound is, they are eliminating part of it from the discussion. Suicide comes from hopelessness. If a Chaplain will not discuss it, then they are assisting in keeping it all in the shadows.

If we do not face this aspect, then there will be nothing done to prevent it. We need to be talking about all of what comes with PTSD, from what happens in the wounded, to their families and yes, even suicide. We don't know if they are seeking this as an answer or it is based on what they themselves do not understand. We don't know if it is because help given to them is too little or irresponsible or just too limited.

There have been too many reports of soldiers and veterans committing suicide after they have sought help and have been provided with therapy and medication. What was missing? What didn't work? Are they still doing what does not work? If no one is talking about it or researching it, then the chances are, they are still unknowingly causing more harm than help. Was part of the problem the family was uninformed? Were they getting all they needed to know? Did they receive the support they needed up to and including their own therapy?

The more reports I read, the more questions I have about what is really going on and who is asking the right questions.

Monica Yant Kinney: For troubled vets, a hard road to healing
By Monica Yant Kinney

Inquirer Columnist

Two weeks ago, the Army took the extraordinary step of briefly suspending operations at Kentucky's Fort Campbell so officials could focus on the mental-health needs of soldiers there after 11 confirmed soldier suicides this year.

Earlier in May, a communications specialist near the end of his third tour of duty in Iraq allegedly gunned down five fellow troops at a combat stress clinic in Baghdad.

Nationwide, Army suicides have reached record highs, from 67 in 2004 to 143 in 2008. In January, 24 soldiers took their own lives - more than the 16 combat deaths that month.

With each new tragedy, John Musewicz worries more about the stress and stigma suffered by soldiers fighting the war on terror. Ignoring the pain allows it to fester, said Musewicz, a Vietnam vet and a therapist running a new Council for Relationships program for soldiers and their families.

Operation Home and Healing offers counseling at any of the council's 14 locations in Pennsylvania and South Jersey. Help can even be had for free if that's what it takes to persuade the proud, reluctant community to step forward.
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For troubled vets, a hard road to healing