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Monday, April 4, 2011

Canada failing soldiers with PTSD

Soldiers paying a heavy price


BY KRIS KOTARSKI, FOR THE CALGARY HERALD APRIL 4, 2011 2:22 AM


In one of the most heartbreaking stories of the 2011 election season, the CBC reported domestic violence on Canadian military bases has climbed steadily in recent years as soldiers who carry physical and psychological battle wounds return home.

This sad piece of news did not come from a stumping parliamentarian or the Department of National Defence. Instead, it came from a freedom-of-information request that revealed a military police report that was shelved and later downplayed by Canada's military bureaucracy.

According to the report, military police noted a five-fold jump in reported cases of domestic violence after troops returned from a heavy combat tour in Afghanistan to Ontario's CFB Petawawa in 2007.

Although this should serve as yet another reminder that too many of Canada's soldiers (and families) look to be suffering from the effects of posttraumatic stress disorder, Canada's military is keen to make this issue go away.

Col. Jean-Robert Bernier, deputy surgeon general with the Canadian Forces, dismissed the report, noting "some methodological flaws in the way some of that military police data was collected and analyzed."

If you find such a dismissal a little odd considering the gravity of the statistics unearthed by the investigation, you may wish to call your local federal election candidate to ask what he or she thinks about how Canada is handling post-traumatic stress disorder and its veterans.

Is suicide interesting enough for our public debate? In 2008, the CBC cited research by Laval University doctoral student Maj. Michel Sartori, who obtained military police records that showed the suicide rate among Canada's regular forces and reserves doubled from 2006 to 2007, rising to a rate triple that of the general population.


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Soldiers paying a heavy price

2 comments:

  1. When it comes no one knows but triggers are everywhere,
    PTSD is my closest enemy. I know its nature and symptoms when it starts to rear it's ugly head. When faced with conflict when morally right I cling to that till violently opposed at which time I become angry, followed by severe anxiety and frozen feelings with flashbacks to trauma and conflict within the military. I avoid conflict like the plague now and stay in my narrow lane. When asked to give personal information in chronological order, it is virtually impossible for me to do so as I become confused by the most mundane administrative tasks, I can give name, address, number, driver's license or anything else that I can give validation for however as for my other aforementioned symptoms I always feel as though I cannot validate any of my feelings as I have but a muted sense of what feelings such as happiness or excitement are . When I wake up there is nothing, I am disinterested without a spark or pilot light feeling so psychologically disfigured that I am not able...to participate in my former life. I feel like I am in purgatory in a parallel universe where you are not dead or alive.

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  2. "I am not able...to participate in my former life." is the part that can begin your healing. Trauma is a major event in lives and no one remains the same. Everyone changes. For some they change bit by bit but others change a lot.
    The good news is, you can change again and really start to heal. You are not "stuck" where you are now. WIth PTSD in control, it is trying to prevent good feelings but you can defeat it even if you cannot cure it.
    You need help to heal so look for it. That includes being treated for all of you. Your mind, body and your spirit. It is not impossible and you can come out on the other side better than when PTSD entered.
    My husband was home from Vietnam in 1971. We met in 82 but I couldn't get him to go to the VA until 93. That was when he started to get help from someone besides me. All those lost years but we're still married and he's living a better life. So are a lot of other veterans.
    You can heal too and then you can help other veterans.

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