PFC Joseph P. Dwyer Project Peer Support Groups for PTSD

BELLONE INITIATES VETERANS SERVICES OUTREACH EFFORT IN RESPONSE TO RISE IN PTSD RELATED SUICIDE
Long Island Press Releases

County Executive Steve Bellone, center, announces a veteran support outreach effort to veteran families in response to rise of PTSD related suicides. Photo Credit: Suffolk County.

(Long Island, NY) County Executive Steve Bellone was joined by Congressman-elect Lee Zeldin, Legislator Bill Lindsay III, Legislator Tom Muratore, the Suffolk County Veteran Services Agency and family members of veterans lost to post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at the Farmingville VFW Post 400 today to announce a veteran support outreach effort in response to the rise in PTSD related suicides around the region. County officials encouraged veterans affected by PTSD to enroll in their local PFC Joseph P. Dwyer Project support groups.

“There is no greater obligation we have than to make sure the men and women of our armed forces have the support and services they require when they come back home,” said County Executive Steve Bellone. “PTSD related suicide is an American tragedy and we need to do more to help our veterans work through the challenges they face.”

 The Joseph P. Dwyer Peer to Peer program is overseen by the Suffolk County Veteran’s Service Agency and is designed to serve veterans, active duty, reserve and National Guard troops suffering from PTSD and allows veterans the opportunity to share and discuss their issues and problems with trained veteran personnel in a secure and anonymous setting.

The unique nature of the program is that veterans are serving as the facilitators of the groups which provides a comfort and familiarity level to those veterans seeking assistance.

Since its inception in 2012, over 2,000 veterans have participated in the Joseph P. Dwyer Project where they share their experiences with fellow veterans and allow the healing process to begin. As part of the outreach effort, the Suffolk County Veterans Service Agency issued an informational pamphlet on the Joseph P. Dwyer Project to veteran households throughout the County.
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Who was PFC. Joseph Dwyer?

Warren Zinn / Army Times file
Joseph Dwyer carries a young Iraqi boy who was injured during a battle between the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry Regiment and Iraqi forces near the village of Al Faysaliyah, Iraq, on March 25, 2003.

A photograph taken in the first days of the war had made the medic from New York's Long Island a symbol of the United States' good intentions in the Middle East. When he returned home, he was hailed as a hero. But for most of the past five years, the 31-year-old soldier had writhed in a private hell, shooting at imaginary enemies and dodging nonexistent roadside bombs, sleeping in a closet bunker and trying desperately to huff away the "demons" in his head. When his personal problems became public, efforts were made to help him, but nothing seemed to work.

This broken, frightened man had once been the embodiment of American might and compassion.

If the military couldn't save him, Knapp thought, what hope was there for the thousands suffering in anonymity? read more here