This again sounds like a guy having a mental break.
Anyone who does this is dealing with a lot issues . The email reads like it’s an overview of a movie and it’s being presented by two former members of the intel community which raises eyebrows.
It’s been talked about for a while but it appears we as a country are dropping the ball helping current and former members of our military
Yep. Although the numbers are debatable, the VA reported 22 veterans a day commit suicide years ago. It's old data that needs to be updated in my opinion.
Treating veterans from deployment experiences should be standard practice for the military. Should not be optional. Sometimes this is the result of humans that' go through some bad stuff serving their country.
When I make this post, I want to be very clear on three things:
1. I'm not a Veteran and cannot even pretend to know what they experience.
2. While I have had some tangential training on the topic, I am not a mental health professional.
3. My experiences with Veterans suffering from mental health issues are obviously limited to my jurisdiction and my own experiences. In other words, I make the statements anecdotally and do not know whether my experiences constitute a sample size large enough to be taken as an accurate reflection of veterans suffering from combat-related mental health issues.
With the above in mind, I spent nearly a decade very involved in a legal program called the Veterans Court. It's a type of court program where the goal is rehabilitation as opposed to punishment. In short, what happens is a Veteran commits a crime (could span from a very low level misdemeanor to a pretty significant felony) and instead of jailing them or giving them a fine or whatever the Veteran can opt into Veterans court and spent 6-12 months (sometimes longer) where there are regular court dates for the Veterans and they have some mandatory obligations but there is a very real benefit that we have a whole team of people (lawyers, judges, mental health professionals, VA coordinators, probation officers, substance abuse counselors, HUD representatives, etc.) that put in real time and effort to "staff" the particular Veterans' issues and genuinely try to help them. A lot of this work is simply getting the Veteran connected to service that he or she has obviously earned that can help with their mental health, housing, substance abuse issues, etc. It's a wonderful court program and some of the my best days in my career were being there for a client who went from being depressed, homeless, and addicted to drugs/alcohol only to graduate the program with a job, a stable home, sobriety, and a re-connectedness to his or her family. Usually these stories also included the financial benefit for the Veteran because the team would be able to get him or her financial benefits that the Veteran earned but did not know how to realize. Truly awesome stuff.
However, there are not always success stories and for every one of the above there may be a Veteran who did enjoy the same success. It would be heartbreaking to watch a Veteran who the "team" helped find housing opt to go back to living in a literal tunnel, find himself back at the bottom of a bottle or the unfortunate end of a lit smoking device or needle, or, in the truly unfortunate situations, wind up committing one or more very serious crimes. I'll be honest, when I learned the Vegas guy's name a part of me worried that I may recognize it due to the geographical area and nature of the crime/act. From my perspective in these unfortunate situations, oftentimes the Veteran likely chose not to engage or take advantage of the programs being offered. Now, I am not placing direct blame here, as it's very possible the Veteran's mental health may have been "too far gone" (my phrase) or the addiction too strong. But, stories like this Vegas truck guy may still be told despite best efforts and services available. This could be because a significant unfortunate life event (e.g. relationship issues, death of a loved one, etc.) overrode progress.
My whole point with the above is to address the statements in the quoted post that I put in bold as I can attest firsthand that there are programs for Veterans upon their discharge - especially for combat Veterans. However, we cannot force the Veteran to engage (such would be unconstitutional) and, unfortunately, sometimes the Veteran's mental health may be too challenging to address. Could our programs and services be better? Almost certainly and that is a worthwhile discussion. But, it is errant to suggest that there are not some real beneficial services for Veterans and that our laws (which require the Veteran have a choice in the matter) and natural budgetary constraints may understandably hinder the efficacy of these services. And, as is always the case when we try marry proactive mental health measures with a person's civil liberties, it is very, very challenging issue to deal with. As such, I do not believe there is a magical solution or fix as the bold may suggest.
. We are throwing millions at the problem locally here in San Diego, and it’s not getting much better. I don’t have any answers, other than I KNOW we need to build a ton more housing.
but in regards to the las vegas guy he was still active duty so the army could have forced him to do whatever they wanted to do for treatment. The military right now has a huge suicide problem that they are currently dealing with, but they refuse to work on services for mental health. It really is bizarre, they acknowledge suicide as a problem but not part of the root cause in treating mental health while members are still in, it’s like they are holding their breath hoping people make it to discharge/retirement date and then wipe their hands clean and say “hey, it’s the VA’s problem now”
