Thread by @Mandalorian_Ren

I’ve been asked many times how do we as civilians help Vets. That’s a hard question to answer for a couple reasons.

1. I never deployed, so I can’t speak for combat Vets.
2. It’s something Vets have searched for the answer to for decades.

So, I’ve decided to sit down and do some research, look to see what some of the professionals are saying. How do we change the culture, the stigma that our troops and Vets face? How do we make sure they get the help they need? It will take more than Vets fighting for fellow Vets

and service members, we need all civilians to stand beside us and demand change

Article 1 of the Constitution states that Congress is responsible for the health, welfare and care of the armed forces of the US and to legislate the changes needed.

Why are we as a collective whole not demanding that? While Vets and service members make up only a small percentage of all Americans, all vets and service members took an oath to serve to protect the rights of ALL citizens -- payable up to and including our life.

Through our democratic process, the voters elect the President – our Commander in Chief -- and our Congressional representatives. The President and Congress determine whether we go to war and when we go to war. They also decide the benefits and support services (or lack thereof)

that our active troops and Vets receive during and after war. These choices have consequences and, unfortunately, the overall impact of these decisions have resulted in negative outcomes for the members of our armed services and our Vets.

-U.S. Military suicide rates for 2018; 321 active-duty members took their lives, icluding 57 Marines, 68 sailors, 58 airmen, and 138 soldiers. That doesn’t include reservists who took their lives.
-Veteran suicides from 2008-2016 were more than 6,000 a year. In 2016, the suicide

rate was ⅕ times greater for Veterans than for civilian adults.
-Suicide rate for Veterans ages 18-34 increased from 40.4 deaths per 100,000 population in 2015 to 45 deaths per 100,000 population in 2016.
-In 2016, the suicide rate for women Veterans was 1.8 times greater than

the suicide rate for civilian women.
-in 2016, 58.1 percent of Veteran suicides were among Veterans age 55 and older
-Homeless Veteran statistics: In 2018, on a single night 37,800 Veterans were experiencing homelessness. On the same night, just over 23,300 of the Veterans

counted were unsheltered or living on the street. This number has been decreasing every year but we can and should do better.
-Veteran Unemployment Rate in May 2019 was 2.7 percent. Women Veterans Unemployment Rate in March 2019 was 2.7 percent.

We can turn these statistics around and better support our service members and Vets, but we must change both our approach and increase our investments. Our military is an all-volunteer service. The Americans who enlist do so for many different reasons.

While many things have changed about war and military service, our support services for our troops and Vets has not kept up. We expect our men and women in the military to return home and assimilate to “normal” life without giving them the necessary tools and support to

successfully re-enter civilian life.

So, what needs to change? For starters, the military must address the stigma associated with asking for help. One way to do that is to make it mandatory, from General down to Private, to see a counselor -- from day one. Make it part of the

culture, teach them about PTSD, make it part of the evaluation process. To do that we need to invest the resources to make more medical and mental health professionals available. We have a shortage not only in the military but civilian-wide. We have non-medical professionals or

experts of PTSD leading combat stress training to their units. Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton, M.D. (Ret) “We knew that we were behind and when I initially brought this up, I was told that since I was a psychiatrist I was clearly just trying to featherbed my own profession.”

During WWII, President Franklin Roosevelt mandated the military provide mental healthcare before discharging. Physical and psychological rehabilitation, vocational guidance, pre-vocational training and resocialization. This had seemed to help those coming home

but after the war the pilot program was ended and has never been looked at again. Why is that? Why not try implementing it again?

Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton, M.D. (Ret) “What makes this set of wars different is the level of combat exposure. Wars of magnitude above what any of our troop spent in WWI, WWII and even Vietnam. As difficult as these conflicts were.”

By 2012, more US troops had died by suicide than were killed in combat. Let that sink in. On top of that, if a Vet killed themselves 121 days after being discharged from the military, their death doesn’t count as a suicide statistic by the military.

Too many young men and women kill themselves beyond that 121-day mark, their deaths are directly related to their military service. There have been 150,000 suicides due to Vietnam and if something doesn’t change the newer generation of Vets could eclipse that number.

Something has to give.

Another source of support that has helped some Vets, including Vietnam Vets, has been private not-for-profit reintegration boot camps, like Save a Warrior. How do we take small programs like this and implement them on a larger scale? How do we reach more of our Vets?

These programs reach a small percentage of the Vets that have combat service. We spend $1 Trillion annually between the DOD, VA and Veteran Service Organizations and yet we have homeless Vets, suicides, etc. This needs to change.

We were not ready for WWII, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. If we send our troops to war we must be prepared to support their healthy transition out of combat and into civilian life. We have to talk about the issues from the beginning.

PTSD shouldn’t be a taboo topic. They shouldn’t be shamed for asking for help or using their benefits. Troops shouldn’t have to worry about losing their security clearances because they reach out for help

Our Vets should be receiving the help and care they need. Let’s change the culture, the stigma and help those who serve to protect our freedoms. Let’s step up and fight for my brothers and sisters in arms. .

Let’s show the brave men and women who took the oath our true appreciation for their service

Call and write your Representatives and demand that it’s time to change the catastrophic system wide failure that has gone on long enough. It’s time to provide our troops and Vets with basic mental health care that they need and deserve.

Statistics were pulled from:
military.com/daily-news/201…
mentalhealth.va.gov/suicide_preven…
dol.gov/agencies/vets/…
va.gov/HOMELESS/pit_c…