National Suicide Prevention Month Daily Update: “The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation.” George Washington Today is Thursday, 11 September. Today is the 13th Anniversary of the attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. which left thousands dead and drew us into 13 years of conflict and combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of servicemen and women have served in those combat zones. Nearly 7000 of them did not return alive. Yet none of us who set foot in that sand came home unchanged. In 2012, when I was conducting my Annual Training at Fort Bliss, TX, doctors at the William S. Beaumont Army Hospital told me that between 30 to 50% of the Soldiers they had seen were dealing with Depression, Anxiety, or Post Traumatic Stress . At that time, the average wait time for an initial evaluation for mental, emotional, or psychological injuries was 60 to 90 days. The average wait time to begin treatment, 18 to 24 months. Things have not improved much in the last two years. The VA claims it doesn’t have enough funding to hire enough medical professionals to treat all of the Veterans in need, yet it has ample resources to spend $489 million on a “makeover” of its office spaces. Highlights of these “makeovers” include $6.8 million to build one conference room in Illinois, $1.8 million on office furniture in Puerto Rico, and $10.7 million on draperies nationwide. (Source: Stars and Stripes, June 24, 2014). It isn’t that the VA doesn’t have the resources, it is that the VA has grossly mismanaged the available resources, spending countless millions on window dressings that should and must be spent on medical care for our Veterans. The VA does not offer counseling services for military dependents, spouses and children of those Veterans who battle these unseen wounds, regardless of the fact that they are 4 to 5 times more likely to develop similar wounds themselves. Silent War Foundation offers help to our Veterans and their families. During this National Suicide Prevention Month, please go to silentwarfoundation.org and make a donation to help heal the souls of these brave citizen-soldiers who have sacrificed so much already. Help us care for our Veterans and their families in a way that honors their sacrifices, not dismisses them. Thank you from a Veteran of Iraq and a survivor of a daily war against Depression and Anxiety.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 12:24:00 +0000
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