Summer is here! Our Nation somberly celebrated Memorial Day with parades, cemetery services, speeches about sacrifice and news articles and opinion pieces about service. We also had picnics, barbecues, time off from work and family gatherings. During one of our family times the topic of
discussion centered around Post Traumatic Stress (PTSD) and how it was treated from WWI and WWII through Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and now Afghanistan. With a number of veterans in the family ranging in age from WWII, Korea and Vietnam, plus the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan; it was a lively discussion.
I was reminded of Colonel Chris Robinson of the Deputy Director for Psychological Health, Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury and his description of Americans as “very stoic” and “self reliant” during a DoD Blogger Roundtable last week and how that impacted our response to the many traumas that our service members are exposed to during combat and the military lifestyle. He said that “self reports” during post deployment surveys, etc. are much higher than folks actually seeking help. Describing the stigma of seeking assistance as a problem for the military community and that the
Real Warrior Campaign was there to help end the stigma.
Convincing our troops that reaching out is a strength and that early care is best said Robinson are two goals of the program. If you have PTSD, it will affect you, it can not be ignored and to highlight its ability to affect all the Roundtable introduced U.S Navy Cmdr. (Chaplain) Steven Dundas.