Fight goes on to get more Veterans Courts in Florida

Time for veterans court is now
Orlando Sentinel
June 1, 2013
Scott Maxwell
TAKING NAMES

This past Monday, America honored its fallen soldiers with parades, ceremonies, car deals and travel discounts.

Come November, we'll do the same for veterans in general — with a similarly unsettling mix of solemn services and retail promotions.

In between are five months when the calendar tells us we don't have to think about the men and women who served this country.

Yet that's when the gritty reality of life after combat will continue to play out for many veterans in the most inglorious of places: inside the jail cells and courthouses of communities throughout Central Florida and America.

Estimates suggest that somewhere around 10 percent of the prison population are former service members. Many have mental-health issues never adequately treated by the country they served. So they end up as cogs in an overworked justice system that temporarily medicates and incarcerates.

That's not good enough. And many communities have already acknowledged as much — setting up veterans courts that specialize in dealing with the problems of former service members.

It is time for Orange and Osceola counties to do the same.

So says Republican state Rep. Bryan Nelson, who successfully championed a bill last year to help create more of these courts — yet who still doesn't have one in his home county of Orange.

"We need to get moving," Nelson said. "These veterans have got issues that we can address at the front end. They served our country. We should take care of them."

The problem

Obviously, not everyone returns from combat the same. Many are fine. But according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, as many as 20 percent of those who went to Iraq and Afghanistan return with post-traumatic stress disorder. The numbers were even higher for Vietnam.

The effect can be everything from lost sleep and strained relationships to aggressive driving and all-out violence. Sure, the VA offers help. But the military doesn't exactly foster a culture that encourages soldiers to ask for it — especially when it comes to mental issues. So many never get the help they need.
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