I wanted to share with you that, In addition to being filmed yesterday for the Behind the Red Serge Documentary about her perspective of PTSD and her family, my daughter Marlee wrote a letter to So You Think You Can Dance, asking them to dedicate a dance to PTSD Awareness. She wrote to them because she wanted to find a way of her own to raise PTSD awareness. As a family I have tried to be open with our children about PTSD, with information relative to their age. I realized as a family we have an obligation to first stop the stigma at home. I allowed her to read my unentitled post last month which was an eye opener for her to see what her dad and other members had been going through with PTSD. We have been having very good conversations since around the topic of PTSD. She plans on starting an awareness campaign of her own in September at her university. My hope is in doing so is as my children go through their own lives if they or if someone close to them suffers from a mental health issue they will be better prepared and open to getting help and support. Lori So You Think You Can Dance, My name is _____ and I’m a dancer from ________, British Columbia, Canada. I’ve been dancing for a number of years and have also taken classes with Liz Tookey at ________. This email is in request for a dance to be choreographed to show the struggles of both the people suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and of their families. This is an enormous problem not only where I live in Canada, but in the United States as well because every 22 hours a US military veteran takes their life because of PTSD. While on duty as a Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officer, my dad had to deal with a case where he discovered a man who took his life by putting a rifle between his legs, the barrel in his mouth, and shooting his head off. He was left responsible to read the suicide note, take photographic evidence, write a detailed report, and deal with the immense grief and sadness of the deceased man’s family members by himself who showed up unexpectedly. My dad like many other men and women developed PTSD due to a traumatic experience at work as a RCMP Officer are left unsupported with no follow up or psychological assistance. My dad’s life began spinning out of control. He didn’t know what was happening with him because during his RCMP training he was never told that something like this could happen to him, how to detect it, or even what to do. When he told someone after he realized something was realized what was happening he was told, like many other men and woman, to “suck it up”. It got to the point where my dad had to leave the RCMP to get professional help. This breaks my heart to think about it because my dad has always been there for me my whole life, but now that he needs help there’s no one there for him. My dad is one of the lucky ones who are actually getting help because of my mom’s determination and advocating for treatment for him. There are many men and women though who don’t know where to get help and they get to point where they see no way out of their pain and agony other than to take their lives. They leave behind friends, family, and children thinking of what else they could have done. The worst part of all is that these men and women who took their lives don’t even get a RCMP ceremonial burial. So they serve and die for the RCMP but they never get any recognition for it or even respect. This kills me to think that if my dad didn’t get help and took his life that he would not only be leaving behind my little sister, my mom, and I but also he would not get any recognition of the sacrifices he has made to serve the RCMP. My mother and many others have been raising awareness about PTSD in the hopes of saving lives and families. My mother and I have always been in awe of how Mia Michaels and Stacey Tookey have the ability to capture the emotion of people’s experiences in their choreography, especially in the dance “Addiction” that was choreographed in season 5 and “Leave” from season 9. It would mean the world to so many people and bring much needed awareness if either one of them could choreograph a dance to tell the story of the struggles people with PTSD are going through. I would like to recommend the song “Bird of Sorrow” by Glen Hansard. This song means a great deal to my mom because it expresses the struggles she went through to get my dad help and back to being him, and her fear of losing him to his PTSD. Being a dancer I know how dance has the ability to capture an audience’s emotions and start movements. It would bring awareness to this tragic disorder, help people suffering from it find their voice, and start a revolution of people wanting to make a change to help others. Thank you for your time and consideration, My family and I
Posted on: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 20:14:34 +0000
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