Veterans' need for mental health services transcends modern era

(Editor’s note: Capitalization, phrasing and line breaks from Walt Whitman’s poem “An Artilleryman’s Vision” used in this column have been retained in keeping with the original meaning of the work.)

When I did not receive my weekly email of his political rants, I was uneasy. When I emailed him to inquire and it got kicked back as “undeliverable” I felt worse. When I called his cell phone number and it was disconnected, I knew what had occurred.

This Air Force veteran friend of mine lived on his family’s estate in Keene, New Hampshire on a ramshackle piece of property that was part of the family’s original land grant from the English. He once told me that his house had withstood Indian attacks in its 300-year-old history. In the end it was a heart attack that took his life and not an Indian attack.

Statistics from the Veterans Administration reveal that on average 1,800 veterans die each day in America. That is over half a million a year. That is the circle of life. Yet 22 veterans kill themselves every day. That is just over 8,000 a year. To put that in perspective over 6,000 have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined in just over 21 years of conflict.

Post-traumatic stress disorder has been around as long as war. Poet Walt Whitman, a witness to the Civil War, wrote about it over 140 years ago:

“WHILE my wife at my side lies slumbering, and the wars are over long,

And my head on the pillow rests at home, and the vacant midnight

passes, And through the stillness, through the dark, I hear, just hear, the

breath of my infant, There in the room, as I wake from sleep, this vision presses upon me:

The engagement opens there and then, in fantasy unreal; The skirmishers begin — they crawl cautiously ahead--I hear their irregular snap! snap! I hear the sounds of the different missiles — the short t-h-t! t-h-t! of the rifle balls; I see the shells exploding, leaving small white clouds — I hear the great shells shrieking as they pass...”

It’s not just young service members who take their own lives. Over 70 percent of the veterans who kill themselves are over the age of 50. They commit suicide at twice the rate for their age group of the non-military community.

Some veteran’s advocates say it is easier for older veterans to feel Americans have forgotten their sacrifices. “That’s kind of the feelings some of our members have,” said Tom Berger, executive director of the Vietnam Veterans of America National Health council.

There are resources and treatment available, yet the sketchy Veterans Affairs statistics say that only 1 in 5 veterans who kill themselves were enrolled in the VA. The stigma of needing mental health treatment is a real phenomenon among veterans and that in my opinion is the largest problem facing our veterans today. Not a lack of resources but a lack of understanding by mental health professionals who never served in the military.

Americans have a loss of connection with those that protect them. I would explain how PTSD has affected my life and relationships but honestly I don’t know you that well.

Phil Kiver is a Cheney High School and Eastern Washington University graduate.