Older Veterans Worried They're Taking UP Space?

Gee wonder where they got that idea? After all, since most charities claiming to be helping veterans seem to have forgotten about them. They are not interested in the fact that older veterans came home with the same exact wounds but waiting longer for help or that all the trouble with the VA today has been going on for decades yet Congress just forgets it was their responsibility to make it work,,,,oh don't get me started!

Expert warns about combat trauma and older veterans at Wyckoff event
North Jersey.com
BY TODD SOUTH
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
MAY 5, 2015

Keane said many older veterans, especially of the World War II and Korean War generation, brush off treatment, worried they’re “taking up space” for veterans who need it more.

WYCKOFF – When Joseph Mariniello returned from a year of infantry combat in Vietnam a tight-knit group of neighborhood friends and family surrounded him and encouraged him to talk about the experience over and again.

Looking back, nearly 50 years later, the 74-year-old who lives now in Mahwah, credits that amateur talk therapy as a “cathartic” experience that helped him re-enter the civilian world and avoid the isolation and post-traumatic stress disorder that many fellow combat veterans faced.

What the people close to him could not have known at the time was that their welcoming, engaged care for their friend was a prescription researchers would spend decades studying to help treat PTSD. 

That kind of close attention is exactly what’s needed now, said Terence M. Keane, head of post-traumatic stress disorder behavior research for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

He spoke before a crowd of nearly 400 local veterans at Tuesday’s annual veteran’s breakfast at the Wyckoff YMCA.

Despite increased funding and programs to treat combat trauma among veterans over the past 30 years, connecting a veteran with help often comes down to the people they know. 

“It’s people, the men and women of the community who need to take up the cause of reintegrating veterans into the community,” Keane said. “Everybody is affected by exposure to war.”
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