Guest Opinion: Abel Moreno, Matt Randle, Johnny Fajardo
Connecting benefit providers with veterans is a great way to observe solemn anniversary
On the anniversary of 9/11, please don’t forget the 1.8 million of us who answered the call and served in the global war on terror. We urge you to seek out friends and family members who served with us and make sure they are getting the benefits they deserve.
Like veterans of every war, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans experience the stress of combat. This stress cannot be avoided, and it affects the functions of daily life.As near-daily headlines attest, we are on track to match the shameful record of the Vietnam era, when more veterans committed suicide than were killed in combat. The same holds true as we suffer increasingly from unemployment, domestic violence and homelessness. There is a major disconnect between the veterans of this era and the services available to us.Far too many of us do not connect with these services.
A recent study by the Rand Corp. found that less than half of us who had serious mental illnesses or traumatic brain injury were getting appropriate care.
Those services are available.
The excellent Veterans Administration hospital and Vet Centers in Tucson offer free health care for five years (including a free screening for TBI), mental health counseling, greatly improved financial aid for college education and a variety of other benefits. The state Department of Veterans Services and Pima County also provide veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan with counseling, employment and many other services. In addition, many nonprofits are just waiting to provide us services. For example, GiveAnHour, a national network of mental health care professionals, provides free or low-cost counseling to vets. Other nonprofits offering free services to today’s veterans are listed through the Coalition For Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans.
From our office in Tucson, the three of us are proud to have helped create Vets4Vets, a nonpartisan, national peer support community of veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. In Vets4Vets, we can come together on our own with other veterans, share our stories and learn what services have worked for others. Peer support works. Vets4Vets is staffed by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who understand the stressors of returning home. It is confidential – just us vets. More than 600 of us have attended 31 weekend workshops around the country over the past two years – free to vets, including travel. We have 14 local groups already meeting around the country.
For information about those groups and upcoming workshops, just visit our Web site (www.Vets4Vets.US). If you want to do one thing on 9/11 to honor those of us who have served in the war on terror, please reach out and tell a veteran to give us a call (520-319-5500). We will put him or her in touch with an entire network of services that all too often lies waiting until it is too late.
