PTSD: Shortage of Services for Vets

Essay by tpfootball11 May 2009

download word file, 9 pages 5.0

PTSD is an anxiety disorder often found in soldiers who have experienced psychological trauma as a result of violent combat. 1 A traumatic event can include child abuse, a car crash military combat exposure and much more. How likely a person is to acquire PTSD depends on a number of things. It depends on the intensity of the trauma, how close one was to the event, how much one felt in control of the situation etc. Many military veterans come back suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder due to the situations they have been exposed to. They have seen images that will stick with them forever such as friends and innocent victims dying gruesome deaths, and it is affecting them tremendously. After witnessing such events they feel scared, angry, and confused. The Global War on Terror (GWOT) has increased the quantity of veterans flocking to the Veterans Affair's system with health care needs.

So far, there have been 1.4 million troops deployed from the time this war was declared.2 Of those 1.4 million, 36% are expected to look for mental health services within one year of returning from combat.3 Mental health issues such as PTSD are going to certainly have an impact on PTSD services offered by the VA, which many believe to be already stretched to the max. The government and the VA need to deal with this situation with the up most priority. The government and the Department of Veterans Affairs are incapable of providing enough mental health services for the escalating number of veterans who are in need, and in lieu of this dilemma, should consider referring some PTSD services to qualified outside sources.

The enormous increase in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation enduring Freedom (OEF) veterans seeking Veterans Affairs health services has left the government...