Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Veterans
When we were talking about the project yesterday, we touched on the topic of how some people do not want to talk about their experiences, like war veterans. As I was searching for some interesting articles, one of them caught my eyes because of it’s extraordinary shocking title, "22 veteran suicides a day". The article was about how there has been 22 veteran suicides everyday day since 1999. This means there is almost one veteran suicide every hour. Experts have no doubt though, that there is a huge number of people being missed in the national counting of veteran suicides. Military sexual assaults and combat stress has been the two big reasons of veteran suicides.
An Iraq war veteran who started Stop Soldier Suicide, Brian Kinsella states that "There's probably a tidal wave of suicides coming,"President Obama said there is a need to "end this epidemic of suicide among our veterans and troops." August 2012, he signed an executive order calling for stronger suicide prevention efforts. A year later, he announced to fund $107 million for better mental health treatment for veterans who have experienced post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury, which are signature injuries of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It is extremely shocking and sad to hear that the people who have protected and shaped our country are suffering and taking their own lives away because of decisions they or their colleagues have made. It is good to hear that the government is funding for the health treatment but I wish it had taken measures much earlier.
Read the article here
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Koshi I was shocked to read those statistics! I knew veterans came back home facing many physical and mental disorders, but to find out that 22 of those brave men and women take their lives everyday is horrifying. I am happy to see the government funding programs to help these veterans, but what about currently enlisted soldiers? I think measures over seas have to be taken in order to decrease the amount of soldiers who come back home and need the treatments you mentioned above.
ReplyDeleteI was also very sadly surprised by the alarming number of suicides. To me, it doesn't seem as though there is enough support for our veterans, who are the citizens of our country that risk their lives to protect our freedom. How many times have you seen homeless people on the streets, their tattered signs identifying them as veterans. To me, it is tragic that these courageous people who suffer so much are not provided with more help like counseling, job opportunities, or additional education. I hope that this statistic does trigger some action in the government to support our veterans.
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