On Saturday, I am speaking at an event, Justice for Veterans at the VFW Post 4287 in Orlando. The Orange County Veterans Court is looking for veterans to step up as mentors.
They want me to explain how to communicate with veterans better than what has been going on. For the last couple of weeks, it has been all I can think about. I don't write speeches anymore. I don't use notes. The trouble isn't finding enough to talk about. The trouble I always have is taking over 30 years of research and a lifetime of experience, then condensing it all down to how much time I am allowed on the clock.
I am glad I talk fast since there is so much going wrong that needs to change before we can even come close to covering what has gone right.
Civilians say
22 Suicides a day
Veterans know
They are double the civilian population.
78% of the veterans are over the age of 50.
For younger veterans, they are triple their peer rate.
For female veterans, they are six times the civilian rate.
For younger female veterans they are twelve times their peer rate.
Civilians say
PTSD is new
Veterans know
PTSD is not new because they live with it.
For everything civilians have after they face trauma,
Vietnam veterans were behind all of it because they pushed
for all the research for every generation before and after them.
"Unfortunately, the attitude that combat veterans with psychological problems are really malingerers trying to gain economically is still with us today. That attitude, combined with veterans’ pride and distrust, accounts for the fact that, while a Research Triangle Institute study concludes 830,000 Vietnam veterans have full-blown or partial PTSD, only 55,119 have filed claims, and the adjudication boards have only believed 28,411 (July 1990) of those claimants."
For everything civilians have after they face trauma,
Vietnam veterans were behind all of it because they pushed
for all the research for every generation before and after them.
WWI, Psychiatrist embedded with troops.
WWII psychiatric evacuations up 300%
Korean War, clinicians treated soldiers and then returned them to duty. Evacuations down to 3%.
Vietnam War, 12 month deployments ended before most knew they were having trouble.
By 1978, the number of Vietnam veterans with PTSD had reached half a million.
All of this was included in this report.
And it got worse.
"Unfortunately, the attitude that combat veterans with psychological problems are really malingerers trying to gain economically is still with us today. That attitude, combined with veterans’ pride and distrust, accounts for the fact that, while a Research Triangle Institute study concludes 830,000 Vietnam veterans have full-blown or partial PTSD, only 55,119 have filed claims, and the adjudication boards have only believed 28,411 (July 1990) of those claimants."
Civilians say
The VA is to blame.
Veterans know
Every couple of years there seems to be another crisis
none of them would have happened if Congress had done their jobs
and fixed the troubles already reported on when they were making promises
to make sure none of it ever happened again. Claims go up and go down but then go
right back up again because empty promises vanished so they could pretend they never knew
none of it was really new.
Civilians say
We wrote a check to help raise awareness.
Veterans know
There is too much talking going on about raising awareness
when the general public has no clue what is real and what is fake.
If they don't know by now, they just don't care enough to learn what
the reality is for veterans and families being forced into silence again since
too many are doing too much talking about something they know nothing about.
Civilians say,,,,,,,they think they know!
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