Clergy Helping Vets

Clergy Helping Vets
By Lauren Green
Published October 28, 2011
FoxNews.com


When American service members come home, smiles can quickly turn to sadness. The emotional wounds of war have become an invisible epidemic.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) ARE SAID TO affect 31 percent of America’s service members, or 300,000 men and women who have served their country.

Colonel David Sutherland recounts, "When I came home I had difficulties fitting in and I had difficulties connecting."

Sutherland is the Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for Warrior and Family Support. He's the point man for the for coordinating a myriad of non-governmental agencies including faith-based initiatives. He's open about his own experiences in hopes that other service members will seek help as well.

He says "My issues manifested themselves in front of my family. My wife of 25 years didn't understand what I was going through and neither did my kids and I used to isolate myself or lash out and I had to ask for help."

The military has reached out to clergy members like the Rev. Tom Carter, for help.
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