Combat Stress Workshops Planned

Combat Stress Workshops Planned: A Veteran PTSD Caregiver is to Speak Here.
July 18, 2009 -- By Loretta Sword, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.
Jul. 18--Combat soldiers returning from war often seem like strangers to their families. Sadder still, they feel like strangers to themselves.

Those feelings, if not expressed and validated by loved ones or professionals, can lead to severe depression, substance abuse, domestic violence, suicide and even homicide, as illustrated by the recent murder cases against a handful of war veterans stationed at Fort Carson.

From the jungles of Vietnam to military bases in Canada and Africa, Sister Kateri Koverman has spent decades working with veterans who have been diagnosed with PTSD -- post traumatic stress disorder -- and helping military leaders to recognize and offer help to PTSD victims.

Koverman is the founder and director of Them Bones Veteran Community, a treatment and advocacy organization based in Cincinnati with a satellite office in Colorado Springs. She'll be in Pueblo next week to lead two free workshops sponsored by Parkview Medical Center's Behavioral Health Division and Mental Health America of Pueblo. One will be for veterans and their friends and families and the second will be for treatment providers and other professionals who work closely with veterans.
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Nun-sense Nun hopes to help soldiers victimized by war

McCLATCHY-TRIBUNE PHOTO
Soldiers can face a variety of woes - taken home with them - because of what they've seen, done and endured.

Them Bones
Nun hopes to help soldiers victimized by war
By MARVIN READ
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
It seems a strange job for a Catholic nun, but a member of the Sisters of Charity is in Pueblo this weekend to find and work with veterans who have been traumatized by their war experiences.

Sister Kateri Koverman hopes to be contacted by veterans or active members of the reserves or National Guard who have served in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Her pilot project is aimed at a relatively small group that also includes those who have been dishonorably discharged and military women.

She'll be in Pueblo from 2 to 6 p.m. today, at the Robert Hoag Rawlings Library. She's be in town Sunday, too, and may be contacted at 513-366-4426, or via e-mail at aboveashes@aol.com.

She will be trying to contact veterans in the Colorado Springs area later this month.

She hopes to provide, through her seven-year-old agency, called Them Bones Veteran Community, couples and group psycho-education as well as therapy "for the common good of veterans, their family units and the civic community."

Additionally, she hopes to submit a grant proposal by March 21 to fund the no-fee outreach program in Pueblo, El Paso and Fremont counties, three areas where, she said, many of those who have served at Fort Carson might live. She is aiming for a start-up grant of $20,000 from a private organization.
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http://www.chieftain.com/life/1205643600/1