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?
Jon Soltz, is Co-Founder and Chair of VoteVets.org.
Copyright © 2007 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
So much for “support our troops”. Bunch of perverts… (not the troops, but the politicians and chicken-hawks who proudly display their stupid yellow ribbon)
Most of the Viet Nam vets I know quit voting after witnessing first hand how corrupt the US Government is.
The Bush administration started cutting veterans benefits prior to 9/11 and continues to do so. The more disenfranchished the neocons can make the vets, the less likely the vets are to vote against, or take other action against the administration.
Just another reason to write to John Conyers and ask him to put HR 333 (Dennis Kucinich’s resolution to Impeach Cheney) ON THE TABLE. John.Conyers@mail.house.gov
While it’s a newer set of news stories, homelessness has been something to ignore with apathetic indifference for some years now. (A bit like imperial carnage in some distant land) While veterans of this latest military escapade have been recovering from permament mutilation in squalor at Walter Reed, it’s unlikely that they will ever see they care they need and will never fully recover.
Is there a magnetic ribbon for this we can buy yet? Like, “Support The Homeless Troops!” or “Support The Troops, Not Their Brains!” or “Support Only The Unwounded Troops!” or “TBI Is A Liberal Lie!” or “God Blesses Our Troops, Not Their Broken Minds.”
Here’s an idea - let’s privatize the Veterans Administration! Calling Dr. Halliburton, Dr. Bectel, Dr. Triple Canopy!
I just sent the following email to: Rep. John Conyers ; John Campbell ; Dianne Feinstein ; Sen. Barbara Boxer ; Nancy Pelosi ;Dennis Kucinich
Cc:Edwards for President Joe Trippi ; True Majority .
When will you, Congressional members, support our troops? When will you declare Bush a war criminal and take action against him and cheney? Dennis Kucinich has introduced HR333 to impeach VP Cheney, but Democrats have chosen to ignore it. Dennis Kucinich has more courage than the rest of you, combined. As our returning soldiers are denied treatment for their wounds, physical, mental and emotional, billions of dollars of “my” money is going to line your pockets and those of your wealthy constituents. Are you going to wait until homeless veterans begin killing, raping and mugging you and your loved ones and your real constituents before taking action to remove the cancer of the Bush Adminitration? This is not a partisan problem; this is a global and immediate concern to all of us. Look at the stock market; look at the housing market; look at fuel prices and all related issues; look at the unempolyment rate(not the phony one, the real one); look at global
warming. These are all related and we are all affected, even the billionaires who fund your criminal enterprise.
Get real and honest and take action. Letters do nothing. Cut off funding for war, and fund, instead, universal healtcare. Support the troops with real assistance.
peace,
st john
St. John : ” Support the troops with real assistance-shouldn’t we say-resistance!
We can`t be bothered with worrying about only twenty thousand or so wounded and mentally disturbed troops when we have new wars to start to protect the American people. The military needs a trillion bucks to keep it all going until Bush can gloriously retire from fighting terrorists over there so we do not have to fight them here. That does not leave much for anything else so we must all understand our brave leaders are doing what is best for us all and stop complaining.
americans don’t care about homeless vets or ones with PTSD. i think they just accept it as part of the american way - it sucks
yellow ribbons or yellow streaks
The powers-that-be just don’t care. Their attitude is probably something like, ” these soldiers don’t have enough faith in the lord Jesus Christ. If they did, they’d feel warrior’s bliss in destroying Satan’s minions. Buck Up, soldier. You get to live in the greatest country the world has ever known, the U.S.of A.! Your brothers died in that godless desert for you, so quit complaining and get a job!”
Following the Vietnam War we went through a period of increased crime, homelessness and inflation. History appears to be repeating itself.