Joseph P. Dwyer Peer Support Program Spreads Healing PTSD

Local veterans are finding help through peer support
OUR MILITARY: Joseph P. Dwyer Peer Support Program aims to help PTSD, depression sufferers
Lockport Union Sun Journal
BY TIM FENSTER
June 10, 2017

"I just picked myself up off the floor of the Humvee and continued to do my job," Greg Conrad

Joed Viera/Staff Photographer

Members of the Joseph P. Dwyer Peer Support Program enjoy a recent afternoon together at a local stable

When Greg Conrad thinks back to his two tours in Iraq, he sees a striking image that summarizes his experiences at war — a bomb going off.

While serving with the U.S. Army in overseas in 2007-08 and 2009-10, Conrad was involved in five separate enemy attacks using improvised explosive devices. He managed to avoid injury from the bombs themselves, but the attacks took a severe toll on his mind and body.

"My battalion commander lost his legs (in an IED explosion)," he said. "It's one of those things that just stays in your brain. It brings up crazy emotions."

In another attack, on a summer night, he was standing in the turret of a Humvee when a roadside bomb went off. The driver pulled off the road to evade further enemy ordnance, and drove into a raw sewage ditch alongside the road. Conrad was thrown forward into the turret ring, injuring discs in his back. But, like with so many other injuries he suffered during the war, he never stopped and gave his body the rest and recuperation it needed.

In 2015, Conrad was connected to the PFC Joseph P. Dwyer Peer Support Program. Unlike traditional mental health programs that involve trained counselors and psychologists, the Dwyer program connects veterans with other veterans.
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Retired Firefighter Learns to Take Back HIs Life From PTSD

PTSD treatment works — the VA has helped me and it can help others
Herald and News
By DEWAINE HOLSTER Guest Writer
June 11, 2017

After my retirement from the fire district I was looking for things to do. I considered many ideas; while I was exploring the idea of helping the VA with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) soldiers, I discovered a link for first-responders.

June is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder awareness month.

I was diagnosed with “Chronic PTSD” June of 2016. I served as a first-responder for near 35 years. To date I have spent 10 months in counseling.

I have learned many things about PTSD and have made it a personal goal to share my journey, educate and to minimize the stereotyping of PTSD victims.

I responded to over a couple hundred incidents involving death. Some were extremely horrific and graphic. Deaths were of all ages, genders, people we knew and those we didn’t know. The ones we knew were obviously more difficult to manage emotionally because we knew them and / or their families. Deaths involving children were always more emotionally troubling.
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Afghan Soldier Killed Two US Soldiers

UPDATE

Pentagon: 3 US soldiers killed, 1 wounded in Afghanistan

Two US troops killed by Afghanistan army soldier, Afghan officials say
The Guardian
Sune Engle Ramsmussen
June 10, 2017

Attack comes shortly after US airstrike killed two Afghan border police, according to Helmand governor, as Trump considers sending more troops

An Afghan soldier has killed two Americans in an apparent insider attack in the highly contested Nangarhar province, according to Afghan officials.

The attack happened less than a day after a US airstrike in Helmand killed at least two members of the Afghan border police in a joint US-Afghan operation, according to the Helmand governor.

The incidents occurred at a time of intensified violence in Afghanistan, and when the Trump administration is considering sending more US troops to Afghanistan.

In Nangarhar, the governor’s spokesman, Attahullah Khogyani, told the Associated Press that two US soldiers had been killed and two others wounded in the attack. He said the attacker was killed.

The insider attack took place in Achin, a district partly controlled by militants loyal to Islamic State. This is where, in April, the US army dropped its largest conventional weapon ever used on a complex of cave used by Isis fighters. Since the Moab strike, US and Afghan forces have been engaged in ground fighting, assisted by regular airstrikes, to clear the area.
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Veterans go "deep in the fields" looking for homeless veterans

Why so many more homeless vets in LA?
KPCC 89.3
Dorian Merina
June 09, 2017

"We call it the search and rescue," said Gonzalez, 41. "It's very similar to the military where we go out into these types of areas, under bridges, in parks, deep in the fields of homelessness."

Sandy Conner, 50, a Navy veteran, hopes to apply for a HUD-VASH voucher to help get him into housing. He currently lives by a ravine where the busy 605 Freeway meets the 10 Freeway in El Monte. DORIAN MERINA/KPCC

Despite recent gains in the fight to end veteran homelessness, a sharp rise in the numbers living on the streets of Southern California has prompted veterans and advocates to call for more action and to question whether the problems at the root of the crisis are being adequately confronted.

The number of homeless veterans hit 4,828, a 57 percent increase over the previous year, according to the Jan. 2017 homeless count released by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority last month.

That's a strong indication that efforts are not getting to veterans early enough, said Nathan Graeser, a researcher at the Center for Innovation and Research for Military and Veteran Families at USC's School of Social Work.

"We don't have a lot of help for people when they reach out before they are in crisis and before they are homeless," said Graeser.

And though progress has been made in helping some veterans find jobs and getting them mental health care, he said, it should start even before service members leave the military.
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Scam of VA Budget Needs to be Castrated!

If we fail to honor the promise this country made the men and women who risked their lives, then we do not deserve to enjoy the freedom to whine about what offends us! 

"I will not be the guy to allow the administration to chip away at VA health care," said Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, the top Democrat on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, pointing to a proposed VA budget that would give double-digit increases to outside care while funding for VA programs remains mostly flat. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., referring to proposed pilot programs that could lead to the closing of VA facilities, pledged to "fight them with everything I have."

This is not about Congress telling us they have no obligation to fix healthcare for our sake. It is not about Congress telling us that they have no intention of taking care of anything when the leaders are more interested in destroying everything the non-rich need to survive. 

This is about the men and women who loved this country so much, they were willing to die for it!

The same politicians telling us that the healthcare programs are terrible, want to send our veterans into that mess! Are they out of their fucking minds! Veterans are not civilians. They pre-paid for their benefits and it has been under the control of the House and Senate since 1946. Who the hell do they think they're fooling? Time to castrate this clusterfuck!

This President's budget is a cut to veterans and an increase into the pockets of private healthcare providers. What makes all of this even worse is the percentage of the compensation cut hitting senior veterans and families is going toward paying for what THEY ALREADY PAID FOR WHEN THEY SERVED! A VA that works for their sake. 

Looks like the only promise veterans can trust is that sooner or later, they'd be screwed by politicians! These are disabled veterans we're talking about!!!!

So when exactly does the rest of the country stand up and fight for our veterans? They are dying to know that one!