Jacksonville Summit to address veterans' suicides

Jacksonville Summit to address veterans' suicides
WOKV News
April 10, 2013
By Tiffany Griffith

Jacksonville, FL — City leaders are confronting the alarming number of veterans' suicides in our country. An issue that's especially important in our large military community.

"You know the warrior mentality, the military mentality is really not to admit weakness," says John Roberts with the Wounded Warrior Project.

But he says, we need to work as a community to give our veterans a comfortable place to discuss their post-war trauma. The numbers show 22 veterans killed themselves everyday in 2010. Roberts added that in 2012, there were more veteran suicides than combat related deaths.

After serving in the first Gulf War, Roberts says he also suffered with Posttraumatic stress disorder. He feels like his counselor at the Veterans Administration wasn't really interested in his problem, so he turned to alcohol and shut down from his wife. That's until he talked to a fellow Marine for help.

Roberts is encouraged that Jacksonville leaders are addressing this head-on. He says we have to erase the shame of Posttraumatic stress disorder, gain our veterans' trust and give them a safe space to discuss their problems.
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