Yet Another Alarm Sounded on Homeless Vets and PTSD. But, Who's Listening?
How many times do we need to hear an alarm? Once again, major studies are finding a swiftly growing number of homeless Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, and a coming tsunami.
One out of four homeless are veterans, and though there hasn't been a very comprehensive study of just Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, the VA estimates at least 1500 homeless veterans of the current wars. I'll bet you everything I got that the number is significantly higher.
There are a number of wonderful groups doing all they can to find these veterans and get them into housing. But that's not enough. The real point to this tragedy is buried in the AP story:
"The Iraq vets seeking help with homelessness are more likely to be women, less likely to have substance abuse problems, but more likely to have mental illness - mostly related to post-traumatic stress, said Pete Dougherty, director of homeless veterans programs at the VA."
The VA finds that, overall, 45 percent of participants in the VA's homeless programs have a diagnosable mental illness. We know from previous studies that greater than 30 percent of Iraq veterans coming home have some PTSD. Those studies were done before third deployments and 15 month extensions. And, remember, sometimes PTSD takes years for manifest itself. So bank on the number with PTSD being higher by war's end and in years after.
And yet, the process for mental screening is deficient, as are the number of qualified people within the DoD and VA health systems to diagnose and treat PTSD. This doesn't even address the severe VA underfunding that simply keeps veterans from getting the care they need.
It was just reported this month that two VA hospitals in Florida were turning veterans away, because they couldn't deal with the load. The money crunch, as well, has the agency pinching pennies and setting the bar for PTSD, and full disability, very high. I had a soldier call me last year requesting a memorandum from an eyewitness officer from Iraq that could validate the soldier had in fact been in combat, despite the fact that the army had already concluded that this soldier was suffering from PTSD! These are the hurdles that are set up.
So, here's how it goes. A veteran goes to the VA, if they can get in, because something is just not right in their mind. Instead of PTSD, they're told they have "adjustment disorder" or a preexisting mental condition, neither of which allows them to collect disability. They don't get the right treatment, allowing their mental condition to worsen. They simply cannot hold down a job, they don't get disability, and, not surprisingly, they cannot afford a place to live and become homeless.
There is no blood test that can tell if you have PTSD. It's not a simple injury to find -- an injury to your psyche. And, until this administration gets serious about greater funding and a real strategy to deal with this coming tsunami, it doesn't matter how many wonderful charitable groups are out there, trying to find and house homeless veterans, because we'll just be dealing with the result -- homelessness -- rather than the root cause - PTSD.
Oh, and by the way, the president is vowing to veto the Labor-HHS bill which includes $3.4 billion for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which provides mental health and suicide prevention services, and $23.6 million for the military veterans that comprise a quarter of America's homeless population in the Homeless Veterans Program.
The alarm is blaring, but who is listening?
Follow Jon Soltz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jonsoltz
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I have PTSD. Chronic with delayed onset. It is a highly treatable disorder, but requires individualized treatment plans. Group and individual therapy sessions are vital, in some cases SSRI drugs can act as an accelerant for recovery, EMDR works very well for some.
But treatment is only one shoe. We need low stress employment options with long term security and health care benefits. We are way cheaper to treat that way rather than through the current emergancy room system...
Diagnosis is tricky and there are plenty of people being treated for depression by mistake right now.
What are some of the groups working to find housing for homeless vets? I have tried connecting with a few offices because I have space available, but so far no one has called me back.
Wonded Vets do not matter.
All that matters is Oil and Arms profits.
Dead Troops = Dubai Based Halliburton profits = Money in Treasonous Dick Cheney's bloody pockets.
US troops serve US Corporations profiting off the Occupation.
As our brave wounded young Vets suffer becuase of Bush lies, Dick Cheney is stuffing his pockets with the cash he has made from the occupation.
Disgraceful. The last theros of a dying Empire.
Meanwhile, Democratic Cowards do nothing except sell out their Nation.
Federal Correctional Institution Texarkana, Texas, 1985 -1988. John Woods, in for the typical package of stuff that Nam Vets were getting locked up for. Even then some were trying to go with PTSD, and the government was, if anything, more intractable than now.
John had the stats and they were both sobering and saddening, amounting to at least a partial throw away generation of vets. Most of those homeless folks hit prison before, during, and/or after the homeless period. Some small outreach on the street, but none inside so John decided to try to found the first ever chapter of Incarcerated Vietnam Veterans Association. They wanted to meet with outside counselors, bascially bring the whole VVA trip into prison to at least make an effort to break the cycle.
My role was to help write the paperwork that the system required to even make the effort. This was all on the QT because "organizing" in prison is only about one step below shaking a hack (except some of the guys just working prison for a paycheck were also vets, and had our back as much as they could).
Eventually we were forced to try the Courts on several related matters, and that was me all the way. Anyway, the one incident to most stands out for me was that in the process of getting our butts kicked again in the Fifth Circuit the Court published an Opinion that, in part, said that the rehabilitative benefit from helping fellow vets was really something that prison wardens can try to discourage if they feel like it.
For John, he persevered and actually got some ground breaking stuff accomplished over the years.
For me, the highlight of that experience was the chuckle I got out of revisiting the case law and finding that that decision against us was never cited favroably by any other court in the nation.
This is why I'm going to pool resources with my family and pay out of pocket to get my brother the PTSD therapy he needs when he gets back from his second, 15 month deployment and is able to separate from the military (a year and a half after his initial separation date - gotta love the internal draft.)
This isn't a partisan issue. Each and every congress person who votes against support the veterans needs to be sent to war.
This Administration are their lackey neo-cons think supporting the troops entails the following:
1. where a flag pin on their lapel
2. "Support The Troops" bumper sticker on their car
3. Yellow ribbon magnets on their car.
This Administration is a disaster and an embarrassment.
Jon, I'm a combat war vet. I know all about PTSD. So please, don't just blame the rightwingers. LBJ sent the vast majority of us over to VietNam. And its your liberal pals who dropped the ULTIMATE insult on us. I want all of you readers to know this.
President Clinton in 2000 illegimately put 83,000 veterans into the National Criminal Information System (NICS)---p
In congress, liberal democrat Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) is putting forth a bill in congress (HR 2640) which would prohibit any veteran (any percentage disabled) from purchasing a firearm. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is trying like-wise in the senate.
First of all, all the service organizations want those names EXPUNGED from the NICS. It was totally insulting and illegal.
Second, one of the terms used in the bill is 'mentally defective'. What an insult ! I guarantee all of you there are war vets with PTSD who live amongst you. And are good and patriotic citizens of our nation.
Finally, third, how come only war vets? Hey Jon, this doesn't apply to policemen, firefighters, school teachers, traumatized and abused women and young people, and others who could be suffering from PTSD. Why only war vets?
Fortunately "Support The Troops" is just a bumper sticker cause if America ever has to actually pay for it's wars it's going to get expensive fast.
There is not adequate affordable housing nor available section 8 monies ( in major markets like the NE corridor section 8 assistance lists are *closed* and have been for years---pe
This is just disgusting. How in hell does this administration get away with this! I am writing my Congresspeople, but will that do any good? These Democrats are as slick as the Republicans in dodging and spinning anything that comes along. How can we send our citizens over there to fight a stupid, senseless, godawful war and then not take care of them when they come home injured? This is the end of the U. S. experiment in Democracy. We are no different than the Romans at the end of the Roman Empire. What have we done?
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