War Veterans and Moral Injury
Image via Wikipedia The number of our military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who are suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Traumatic Brain Injury is larger than what the resources provided to the military medical departments or Veterans Affairs Treatment and Hospital Centers can accommodate. By 2008, the number of military personnel who served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in treatment for PTSD was 67,717. The number of those not seeking or not accepted for treatment in military or VA facilities is thought to be many times higher. Most of the troops serving in these wars are from the Reserves or National Guard . These personnel do not return to military bases but return to communities, like yours, in the civilian sector, where there are few with a knowledge of what they have experienced, nor are there enough facilities to treat them. The incidence of PTSD is compounded by a high suicide rate in the military, which is now about twice the nati