SF Chronicle:
Thousands of Iraqi and Afghanistan veterans are returning home only to become casualties of war - at their own hands. Suffering from psychiatric injuries, 1,000 veterans under Veterans Administration care are attempting suicide each month. Almost 40 percent of the young men and women returning from combat almost have proven mental health injuries that include Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, major depression and traumatic brain injury.
But when they seek help, disabled veterans face a claims system so mismanaged and inefficient that they often must wait more than five years for any assistance. The Department of Veterans Affairs is choking on a backlog of some 600,000 unresolved benefits claims. Even after their eligibility has been established, thousands of veterans cannot obtain adequate mental health treatment. While they wait for the care they are owed, veterans are dying. About 126 veterans per week commit suicide. Vast numbers of veterans are living with mental illness, sometimes so severe that they are unable to work. Nationally, about 154,000 veterans are homeless on any given night and twice that many are homeless at some time during the year. Read on…
3 comments:
This is truley sad, here they don't get paid well to begin with, then the job market is horrible, you would think they would have facilities. dorm like for Vets. so they can get back on their feet after being away at "this war on terror"
This is an example of why men/woman will not join our Military. We once were a proud country and it was an honor to serve as our soldiers knew we would take care of them and wouldn't lie. All that has changed. McCain is right no one wants to be a career soldier anymore. As our current soldiers watch the Generals lie and even take orders from the White House without caring about their fellow soldiers what does one expect. I've talked to ranking soldiers who are now rethinking their careers after seeing how their leaders act. The Generals don't care about the troops welfare only the extra kick back of money given by the White House. I've talk to soldiers who say they were paid 1,000 bonus to lie on camera for the President. Yes they did it because their pay was so low and their families needed the money. People have to remember National Guards get no benefits nor their families. For you young people on this blog, the United States never had National Guard serve in War time we open the draft first. There are more National Guards serving today then soldiers who enlisted. That's why the medical care is so poor the Pentagon isn't using the policy for National Guards.
troops abuse is the bush/rumsfeld legacy. credit card war, no draft and constant deployment. sick.
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