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Life After War is a Struggle


Article on current, and past, vets problems with adjusting with civilian life:

“When they went into the service, they had no experience looking for a job. They’re totally lost,? Dozier says. ?They don’t know how to convert their [military occupation specialties] to something that would relate to private business. Nobody wants to hire you. You’re depressed and on top of that you’re starting to have bad thoughts about what you did in the war.?

Next comes self-medicating with drugs or alcohol. Divorce, crime, homelessness and suicide might follow. Heading off these tragedies takes early intervention in the forms of job and stress counseling and education, Dozier says.

But the agency whose job it is to care for the nation?s 26 million vets is under-funded and ill-equipped to address the problem, critics say. The VA, which spends more than $70 billion annually (half of it for medical care), has suffered budget shortfalls for years. Last year it came up $3 billion short.

Exploding enrollment and skyrocketing medical costs are partly to blame. ?[The] VA has experienced unprecedented growth in the medical system workload over the past few years,? reads a Department statement. ?The number of patients treated increased by 22 percent from 4.1 million in 2001 to more than 5.3 million in 2005.?

?This Administration still does not count caring for veterans as part of the cost of war,? contends Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), ranking member of the Senate Veterans? Affairs Committee. ?[The] VA wildly underestimated the number of younger vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

(via military.com)

This entry was posted on May 24, 2006, 20:09 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.