Dealing with vets’ invisible wounds

Dealing with vets’ invisible wounds
01:00 AM EDT on Monday, October 11, 2010
By Katie mulvanEY

Journal Staff writer
PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island Representatives Patrick J. Kennedy and James R. Langevin will bring together law-enforcement officials, veterans, judges, military advocates and health-care experts this month for a roundtable discussion of the state’s efforts to help veterans recover from what they describe as the “invisible” wounds of war.

The group will explore avenues in which qualified veterans may receive treatment for substance-abuse issues and neurological disorders through Veterans Administration health care, as an alternative to the criminal justice system, according to Kennedy’s office.

Set for 4 p.m., Oct. 25, at the Rhode Island National Guard facility in Cranston, its participants will include Craig Stenning, director of the state Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals; Ashbel T. Wall II, director of the Department of Corrections; Deputy Attorney General Gerald J. Coyne; District Court Chief Judge Jeanne E. LaFazia; and Daniel Evangelista, the state’s commandant for veterans affairs, Kennedy’s office said.

The effort is in cooperation with the Rhode Island National Guard and the Municipal Police Academy.
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Dealing with vets invisible wounds