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Veteran mental health resources are available throughout county

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Missing limbs and scarred skin of veterans are the undeniable visual reminders to be thankful for the sacrifice of service men and women who paid the cost of war. 

The invisible wounds are sometimes more difficult to heal, and are more often ignored or misunderstood as soldiers return home.

At an Oct. 2 bi-annual meeting hosted by Ronan VFW Post 5652, veterans who served in the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Africa spent the evening sharing their struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the varied coping methods and resources available to manage the condition. 

According to the National Institute for Mental Health, PTSD is characterized by being stressed or frightened long after the threat of physical injury or harm has passed. War, domestic violence, rape, and natural disasters are experiences that often result in the disorder. Symptoms include flashbacks, upsetting dreams, emotional numbness, memory problems, trouble concentrating, irritability or anger, self-destructive behavior, hallucinations and being easily startled or frightened. PTSD became well known because of its prevalence among Vietnam War veterans. According to 2007 results of the National Vietnam Veterans’ Readjustment Study commissioned by congressional mandate, 53.4 percent of males and 48.1 percent of females who served in the war suffered from PTSD or partial PTSD. The disorder can be temporary or last a lifetime. 

Data about PTSD in veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq are still being collected, but preliminary numbers released by the Department of Defense indicate approximately 20 percent of veterans from those wars have been diagnosed with PTSD, accounting for almost 300,000 people. 

For the veterans who spoke in Ronan, PTSD can mean horrid memories of the smell of blood, taste of iron, and other sounds and images of what they experienced during service. Some try to avoid triggers of the flashbacks. Others contend there is no way to escape the triggers, and that veterans must find a way to deal with them. Avoiding idleness and adopting a hobby helped some manage the disorder. Families, friends, and the general public often don’t understand the emotional turmoil they go through. One person went so far as to tell one of the young Ronan veterans that because she wasn’t physically wounded during her service, her struggles with PTSD must not be real. 

Mary Rogers, tribal veteran representative, said many veterans on the Flathead Reservation feel wary about discussing their experiences. 

“They sometimes think it’s a sign of weakness,” Rogers said. “That’s not true. Native Americans serve at the highest rate of any ethnic group in the world, but they are the last to ask for help.” 

Rogers and her husband Bill work to help veterans make the most of their benefit packages. Although each former service member is entitled, at the very least, to a pair of eyeglasses and an annual physical, many don’t register with Veteran’s Affairs, especially if they just returned home. 

“They want to come home and be with their wives, their kids, their moms and dads,” Bill Rogers said. “The last thing they want to do is to come sit in an office and fill out paperwork and talk about their feelings.” 

There are resources available, however. Mary Rogers coordinates appointments for the Veterans Mental Telehealth Center in Pablo. The center is open from 8 a.m. until noon every Monday, and allows veterans to talk via video call with a mental health professional in a secure, confidential environment without having to drive hours to receive help. Twenty veterans currently use the telehealth center, Mary Rogers said. 

Traveling long distances to Kalispell or Missoula can derail appointments with Veteran’s Affair’s offices. A couple of the veterans at the Ronan meeting said they would probably turn around mid-drive in anticipation of having to talk about what happened to trigger the PTSD. 

But talking about the bad experiences is required to qualify for help. Just as the VA assigns a percentage disability rating for physical wounds, the organization also takes notes, evaluates and assigns a percentage disability rating for mental disorders. 

The process requires copious amounts of paperwork and documentation, which some veterans are wary of, Mary Rogers said. 

“A lot of people don’t want to come into the office and tell us all of what happened,” she said. “I’ve met people at Dairy Queen, at their homes, even at a bar once to talk with them.” 

Treatment for PTSD is costly. According to the Government Accountability Office, the average price of health care for a veteran with PTSD is $8,300 per year, or 3.5 times more than a veteran without the disorder. The cost of treating veterans who returned home from Afghanistan and Iraq with PTSD totaled more than $2 billion since the wars began, according to the GAO. 

For some, working through the disorder is made easier by caring family members and friends who try to understand by listening, reading books that explain PTSD and offering unconditional love and support. 

The PTSD talk in Ronan was the second one held in the past year, partly because a concerned family member reached out to the post’s service officer Bert Todd, and asked about her veteran husband: “Can you tell me why he throws the phone against the wall?” 

The toll of PTSD on veteran’s families is often great, according to Dr. Jeffrey Heider, psychologist at the Kalispell Vet Center. 

“PTSD is a family affair,” Heider said. “Your behavior is like second-hand smoke your family.” 

The Vet Center offers free of charge mental health services to veterans who have served in a combat theater or experienced sexual abuse. Services are extended to families of veterans as well, Heider said. 

The stakes of not getting help for PTSD are high. Keeping the feelings inside can contribute to depression, suicidal thoughts, angry outbursts, and violence. 

The biggest killer of military personnel currently is not bombs or improvised explosive devices — it’s themselves. Since 2010, the number of active duty military who died by suicide have been greater than those who died in combat, according to the Department of Defense.

The problem doesn’t end when discharged. Each day 22 veterans commit suicide – one every 65 minutes. The statistic, released by the Department of Veteran’s Affairs in February, could actually be higher. The data collected to obtain the number only accounted for 40 percent of the population of the United States, and did not count deaths in California or Texas, two of the largest states. 

In Montana the situation is especially grave. The state leads the nation with its rate of veteran suicides, according to data analyzed by the News21 organization at Arizona State University. Ronan Marine veteran Chuck Lewis completed a six-month walk across America in September. Lewis and other veterans were a bit shocked to be called to be a part of the honor guard for the funeral of a Mission veteran who committed suicide less than 30 days after he quietly returned home from deployment. The event helped spur Lewis to make the journey across 14 states. He said he saw many veterans and veteran’s families interested in helping each other, but is concerned about apathy among the general public. 

“How many of you are not a veteran or related to a veteran in some way?” Lewis asked the crowd at the PTSD gathering. No one raised his or her hand. It’s a situation he saw across the nation. “How do we get people to care and pay attention?” Lewis said. 

The instances of veterans helping veterans are numerous. Tammy Hirsch is a Polson resident who is vice-president of the Healing Hearts in Hope Veteran’s Retreat Center in Granite Falls, Wash. The center is a non-profit that was founded by Teresa “Flying Eagle” Baird, who raised her six children alone after multiple sclerosis slowly stole her mobility and left her a quadriplegic. Her husband William Baird was a Vietnam veteran who committed suicide near the time of her diagnosis. Hirsch said Healing Hearts has a peer-to-peer approach to PTSD. 

“We work at a vet-to-vet level,” Hirsch said. “It evens the playing field and eliminates the stigma.” 

Stigma and negative perception from people who don’t understand is always a threat of suffering from PTSD. One of the Ronan veterans expressed frustration because identifying as someone with PTSD automatically attracts a label of negativity, although those suffering from the disorder can learn to lead happy, productive lives. Often, the only people who understand the nuances of coping with the disorder are other people who have it. 

Sessions like the one in Ronan that connect veterans with others who have PTSD can make a difference. Two veterans who were in dire emotional circumstances at the meeting last March reported that they were coping much better. One veteran avoided suicide after his son walked in just before he pulled the trigger. He unloaded the gun and called someone who had been at the meeting for help. 

The veterans agreed they would like to see more of the general public and family members of the service people at the next meeting, anticipated to be in March. In the meantime, there are many services available to offer help to veterans with and without PTSD. 

Mary Rogers, tribal veteran representative, can be reached at (406) 241-2048. She can help with access to all services provided through the Department of Veteran’s Affairs, including the telehealth center in Pablo. 

The Kalispell Vet Center, which offers mental health services including those for children of combat veterans, can be reached at (406) 257-7308. 

The Healing Hearts in Hope Veterans Retreat can be reached at (360) 691-6284. 

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is staffed 24/7 and can be accessed by dialing 1-800-273-8255 (TALK). Pressing 1 will take the caller to the Veteran’s Crisis Line. 

The Ronan VFW Post can be reached at (406) 676-5652. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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