Saving survivors after trauma

Saving survivors after trauma
by
Chaplain Kathie

This is a picture of Max Cleland taken after he was wounded in Vietnam.

This image is of a man, clearly providing evidence we can understand that he lived through something horrible. It would be easy to accept he was severely wounded. The VA had no problem understanding this. It's doubtful he had to fight to have his claim approved for disability. It is doubtful others in his condition have to fight to have their claims approved, go without the ability to pay their bills or go without psychological help.

This image is of a veteran of our newer wars.

Again, it is obvious to everyone that he was clearly wounded in service to this nation. No one would ever doubt he needed help to heal physically or emotionally. It would take a totally heartless individual to dismiss his wounds. When veterans like him return to their home towns, communities line up to help him and his family. They do all they can to make sure he is as comfortable as possible. They make sure his home is able to accommodate his wounds. It is clear his family will need help as well.

This image is of two Iraq veterans needing to heal from burns.

Again the wound is clear. Associating psychological issues is an easy step to make. We can see they were wounded, survived something horrifying. We know they will need help to heal physically as well as emotionally. There would be no problem giving them mental healthcare for the rest of their lives. Should either of them receive the wrong disability other than 100%, the people of this nation would be totally outraged. We would wonder what was wrong with the VA is they were not taken care of so they could pay their bills and live a life as comfortably as possible.


With this image we can clearly see a head wound.

We find it easy to see the scar left behind some traumatic event in this veteran's life. When the scar heals, we then expect him to get on with his life and return to what we consider "normal" then just go back to work but we tend to not look past the scar we can see with our eyes and know there could be something more there needing to be treated. His family would just assume any changes in him would come from what he survived. Should he have nightmares, it would be easy for a family member to react to the nightmare with compassion instead of anger or frustration.

These images are of veterans. They look fine. As if there is nothing wrong with them at all.

But these faces are of happier times. After combat they would have looked almost the same. They may have told a joke or two. They may have been able to laugh with their friends. They would have returned changed to the people closest to them. There would have been changes associated with combat but it would be passed off as "he'll get over it" or "he just needs time then he'll be ok." Veterans like this would have a hard time getting claims approved. There are no obvious wounds of war. They may have trouble getting jobs and keeping them. They may have trouble sleeping. They may have trouble with flashbacks and nightmares draining their energy. When they are waiting for help as well as having to fight for it, they begin to lose hope of getting any better as their condition becomes worse. This is what PTSD looks like. These veterans lost hope of healing and they all committed suicide.

We lost 18 veterans the day we celebrated Veterans' Day. It was not so unusual on that day because it happens every day of the year. There are another 10,000 veterans attempting suicide each year. Those are just the ones the government is aware of. There are more.

We read reports over the years stating clearly suicides in the Army have risen no matter what the Army has attempted to do to address this. We read reports of veterans committing suicide no matter what the VA attempts to do to address this. What we don't read about are the numbers of veterans in between soldier under the Department of Defense and veteran in the VA system. We have no idea how many committed suicide in between. When they are discharged, the military does not know and does not attempt to know. Until they are in the VA system with an approved claim, the VA does not know about them and does not attempt to know. While we may read in the local newspaper about the death of a veteran, most of the obituaries will state "died suddenly" and that is the end of their story. We don't know what they went through after war. Usually the families are not sure what happened either.

Their flesh survived the traumas of war. We assume the rest of "them" did as well.

There is a deep, dark prevalence of "let the VA take care of them" among service organizations. We hear there are more doctors and mental health workers being hired, that the VA and the DOD are doing something about all of this, but what we don't understand is that while these veterans are in clear need of help, what the DOD and the VA have been doing is not enough to meet the needs of the veterans. They are doing the best they can with what they have right now, but with all the years they were not mobilizing to be proactive there were more and more veterans needing help before they could catch up. These veterans end up in a waiting line while they have to fight to have their claims approved, their wounds treated and be able to pay their bills. The rest of us pass all this off as, "If they have a real disability the VA will take care of them." but we never consider what happens between wound and approved claim. We also tend to dismiss the fact there are lower ratings than the veterans wound calls for. They then have to fight for the increase while they see the pressure and stress rise when they cannot pay their bills, find and keep jobs and their lives fall apart.

There is an even darker prevalence of the clergy unable and unwilling to understand what is happening to these veterans. While many churches are more than willing to celebrate Veterans Day with special services, they are the last to respond to the spiritual need of these veterans in need of help healing what the eyes cannot see. PTSD is eating them alive, pulling them away from God as hope erodes. They see their families suffer because of the changes in themselves but they are powerless to do anything about any of it. Knowing they need help but unable to find the help they need, they turn to drugs and alcohol. They sought help of the VA but the VA cannot get them appointments right away and their claim is trapped in the backlog pile as if their entire life is just supposed to go on hold and their financial support is unimportant.

None of them seem to notice all the groups forming to try to fill in the gaps because they are tired of waiting as they watch the death count go up, homeless veterans join more homeless veterans, families fall apart and yes, suicides claim more of the combat survivors.

As much as it is easy to overlook the wound we cannot see, it is just as easy to overlook the veterans without the help they need to heal. While there are some parts of the country with veterans service groups stepping up to help, in other parts of the country more are finding excuses to not get involved. They are content to just sit back and wait for the VA to do it. They simply believe the press releases that the VA and the DOD are taking care of it while ignoring the reports about how the need is getting worse.

What is perhaps the most sickening thing of all of this is that none of it has to happen.

This is what can be done.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Veterans Court, A second chance for vets
A second chance for vetsNew program: County Veterans Court helps those in trouble with PTSDCHRISTIAN HILL; The Olympian • Published July 26, 2009A former Army Ranger, he served a combined 18 months in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, and lost his best friend in an attack.Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, Harrington, 26, couldn’t hold down any one of a series of eight jobs. Always on edge, he’d binge drink to get a good night’s sleep; otherwise, he’d be up for days. He fired three therapists after exploding in anger when they wanted him to talk about experiences he had locked deep inside.A man who served and lived by the motto “Rangers lead the way,” Harrington had lost his way in civilian life.“I thought I was invincible, and I can’t hold a (expletive) job,” said Harrington, who left the Army more than four years ago.In April 2008, he hit his wife. A neighbor called police, and Harrington was arrested and charged with fourth-degree assault. She has since left him.Harrington will not be locked up as a result of a new Thurston County program that convened for the first time last week.Thurston County Veterans Court offers a second chance to current and retired service members who commit crimes while struggling with war-related psychological wounds, notably PTSD and traumatic brain injuries. Buffalo, N.Y., started the first such court last year, and numerous communities have followed in its footsteps.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Ogden VFW post to host seminar on PTSD
Ogden VFW post to host seminar on PTSDPress ReleaseOGDEN - The Ogden Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1481 will host a free information seminar on Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Tuesday, July 28 from 7 to 9 p.m.Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that some people develop after being exposed to an event that caused or threatened serious harm or death. Although many military men and women returning from a combat area do suffer from PTSD, it is not a disorder exclusive to veterans.So who gets it? Anyone can. PTSD affects children, women, and men of any age; about 5.2 million adults in any year. PTSD can be experienced immediately or have a delayed onset.What causes PTSD? An overload to the nervous system through trauma or torture exposure; an extreme threat or disruption to life; repeated abuse or danger; seeing someone you care about die, near death or having their life threatened, can bring on PTSD. Rape or sexual attack, being shot at, natural disasters, a vehicle crash, kidnapping or having to fight for your life or the life of someone else are just a few potential severe emotional traumas that can bring on symptoms of PTSD.

Ministries pave a spiritual path to help veterans with PTSD
Ministries pave a spiritual path to help veterans with PTSDBy G. Jeffrey MacDonald, Special for USA TODAYHopelessness haunted Tim Pollock for years after an Iraqi insurgent blew off half his skull during a reconnaissance operation in 2004. Back home in Columbiana, Ohio, the retired Army infantryman drank hard, bought a gun and considered suicide.But today Pollock, 30, has a renewed sense of purpose despite his seizures and other war-related disabilities. He visits soldiers in hospitals. He coaches veterans who struggle as he does with agitation, anxiety and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). And he's studying for ministry.Ministries pave a spiritual path to help veterans with PTSDPTSD: Puts veterans at increased risk of dementiaARMY: Monitoring faulted in rise of soldier suicidesCATHARSIS: Stressed troops take cues from ancient plays"I'll always have post-traumatic stress, but I'm learning through God how to control that," says Pollock, who leads a veteran support group through Point Man International Ministries, an independent non-profit. "I'm learning how to change my feelings of anger into feelings of love and help people with their problems."As soldiers return home from Iraq and Afghanistan, congregations are discovering how spirituality can help veterans afflicted with postwar stress. But many pastors remain unsure how to help when veterans contend with chronic nightmares, outbursts and panic attacks.

Click on the links to read more about what can be done when the rest of the country stops using excuses and steps up to help these veterans heal. They only ask for what they need but were willing to give all they had.