Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, better known as PTSD, haunts the everyday lives of the many veterans who have served our country. PTSD has been around for many years, originally called “shell shock,” dating back to the period of World War I. It is hard to imagine what goes on in war. A person would have to go there and experience it to truly understand what our men and women soldiers go through every day. Soldiers witness horrific scenes and survive the traumatic events caused by war daily to protect our freedom. There are countless stories of veterans who are suffering from PTSD who are not getting the services they need. The reason for this is that there is an influx of veterans trying to receive help for their mental disabilities. Some veterans do not even get help because they feel it is not worth the wait which seems endless. The government’s funding of the VA (Veterans Affairs) is limited to little or no money. Should the government be on top of this issue? People who risk their lives for our freedom come home broken, trying to fix themselves but cannot due to the government’s lack of involvement and the inefficient VA system. I believe it is in our best interest to do whatever it takes to get veterans the help they deserve.
Having good mental health is important. It means being mentally stable and being able to function properly. People with PTSD are in a weak mental state. Sadly, the worst outcome that occurs with victims of PTSD is suicide, which is increasing among veterans. A report from the VA stated that over 6,000 veterans committed suicide each year from 2008 through 2016, a 25.9 percent increase (Howley 2019). If more than 6,000 veterans died each year from 2008 through 2016, that is around 48,000 suicidal deaths over eight years. The VA facilities can only hold 1074 outpatients at a time and there are 170 VAs around the United States. That means there can be a total of 182,580 veterans getting help each day. Many of these veterans have to wait for a month or longer to get into the VA for an appointment that only lasts for thirty to sixty minutes. It is hard to solve a person’s mental health issue in such a short visit.
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In an interview with an Iraq veteran, he explains his life having PTSD. He says that there are times when he gets so emotionally unstable that he tells his wife to take his child away from him because he feels he could harm her. On work days, he occasionally has to sit in his car to get away from people because he has a short temper. In his interview, he also talks about only being able to see his psychiatrist for thirty to sixty minutes every three months because the VA is a broken system (Hamilton 2013). The few visits with the VA he had were not great experiences. He would explain to his psychiatrist that he has depression and terrible thoughts. The psychiatrist would then give him medicine, sometimes too much. This was a recurring problem in the VA. Some veterans either receive too much medication or not enough. The psychiatrists did not care about him, they just wanted to get him out as soon as possible so they could move on to the next patient. Most of the medications the veterans received were pain medication and antidepressants. A mix of the two usually is not a great combination. Many veterans are either whacked out on drugs or craving them just from the amount they receive.
My father has witnessed this firsthand while working. He talked about a young man who was highly decorated, known for his excellent marksmanship, and a respectable man before he came home from the war on terror. He had PTSD and my father could see his drinking had increased as he approached him one day. Empty cans were lying all over his porch. He had a wife and two children but my father was told by the wife that they were going through a rough patch ever since he got back. The man was unstable mentally and my father could see that. One day he went missing and my father had to search for him. He searched and searched but it was as if he had just vanished. Just as my father was about to give up he saw him lying in an abandoned motel on top of a blanket, curled up. My father said, “It was one of the saddest things I have ever seen.” My father said that he tried getting him help through the VA system because this young man needed it immediately but their answer was the same as for everyone else trying to get into the VA. He would have to schedule an appointment which could take a couple of months. Afraid of the man's actions and what he could do, my father was always aware of him. He talked about how at any point in time he could just snap and everything would go downhill. Knowing that he was an outstanding marksman petrified my father. He worried about his life and others around him. Without proper help from the VA, this young man's life could crumble beneath him.
During Obama’s presidency, the VA’s budget grew over 86 percent from 2009 to 2017 to get to a total of $182.3 billion (Toledo 2017). During Trump’s presidency, the VA’s budget almost doubled. For this to occur, Trump had to take money out of other programs. Some of the programs are Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) which both help support veterans. Medicaid helps veterans with medical costs that they cannot afford and also gives veterans many benefits. SNAP helps veterans get a monthly supply of healthy nutritious food if they qualify for it. Trump’s thinking was more on helping veterans with mental problems rather than helping veterans who needed help supporting themselves. I understand what Trump was trying to do but it is hard to fix a system that is already so messed up.
There has been an increase in awareness of PTSD. People are trying to find alternative ways to get veterans help other than the VA. There has been a question about service dogs being able to help veterans with PTSD (Thompson 2019). There is not a clear answer to whether service dogs will benefit veterans. They are being studied to see if they are capable of providing the support the vets need. Almost all veterans have this stigma of going to the VA because they feel that they would be judged for being weak. It is hard to remove that type of mindset from people who were trained to kill and be tough.VAs are typically located in large cities and a large percentage of veterans live in rural areas where it may take a while to get to the VA. Knowing the wait time and having that stigma is almost impossible for a vet to want to leave his house and go receive help. The other alternative for this is phone calls. Being able to set up a phone appointment with one of the specialists in the VA makes veterans feel more comfortable and willing to talk.
The VA needs to be fixed and funded to help care for our veterans. They put their lives on the line for our freedom and when they come home with a broken mind how do we repay them? They reach out to receive help but they are told to wait their turn or many of them are just too scared to get any help because they feel that they are going to be judged. Is this how we should repay veterans? President Trump's plan to increase the budget for the VA was a great idea until he had to take money out of other veteran help-seeking organizations. Future Presidents should be aware of these problems that the VA has and should solve them. They should not just do it for the country but the veterans and families dealing with PTSD.
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