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Tag Archives: veteran
RSL Push for Laws Recognising Former Diggers’ PTSD In Police Matters
The RSL has called for new laws to help stressed war veterans in trouble with the police, arguing they need hospital rather than jail.
The RSL’s NSW CEO Glenn Kolomeitz, who as a lawyer dealt with hundreds of veterans suffering post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), mainly over drug and alcohol-fuelled violence, said not one of them should have been in the criminal justice system.
Mr Kolomeitz, an Afghanistan War veteran, said he was having talks with state Justice Minister David Elliott to press for laws giving troubled vets the same rights in legal matters as other segments of the community, including Aborigines, children and people with mental illnesses.
As authorities struggle to deal with an estimated 3000 homeless veterans sleeping rough, many suffering PTSD, Mr Kolomeitz said not one of the hundreds of vets he had dealt with in his law practice had reoffended.
“That zero recidivism rate tells me none of them should have been in the criminal justice system,” he said.
“It’s my view that when they are being interviewed by police, the police should identify them as a suspect potentially with PTSD, cease the interview and arrange for them to have some sort of legal advice. Other sectors of the population have that same entitlement.”
Read more in The Daily Telegraph.
Minnesota Police Trained To Identify Veterans In Crisis
Some police officers across Minnesota are going through training on how to identify veterans in crisis.
The training is meant to help officers recognize and offer support for a growing number of returning war veterans who have post-traumatic stress disorder or a traumatic brain injury.
Officers from St. Paul, Minneapolis and Richfield police departments as well as University of Minnesota and Metro Transit officers took part in the training. Minnesota has the distinction of being home to the longest deployed national guard unit in the country.
Baker is a defense attorney who co-teaches a class called, “De-escalation Strategies for Minnesota Veterans in Crisis.” He tells officers what to look for, like combat badges, bumper stickers or clothing that helps identify a person as a veteran.
“What we want is to understand that this is a veteran, and if it’s a veteran crisis, how do we get them to treatment,” Baker said.
Officers from the St. Paul Police Department took part in the training, too.
“It’s a new item in our bet that we will be able to use and hopefully use less force,” St. Paul Police Sgt. Paul Paulos said.
Sgt. Paulos says it’s not a free pass for veterans, but a tool that can be used to get them the help they need.
Source: CBS Minnesota.
Why Demographics – Including Sexual Orientation – Matter In PTSD research
As the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continue, and military service members continue to return home from these two conflicts, more research has been conducted to examine rates of PTSD among these service members (known in the US as OEF/OIF Veterans i.e. Veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom). This research is important so that we have an understanding of the need for healthcare in newer returning Veterans (which may differ from previous generations). In reviewing some of these articles, many of which are quite well-designed, we noticed a need for some further study to understand the nuances of who develops PTSD and why.
In particular, it would be useful to examine how PTSD prevalence in US OEF/OIF Veterans depends on 1) Veterans Affairs services use (with a particular focus on non-VA users), 2) relationship status, and 3) sexual orientation.
Read the full Trauma Recovery article.
Source: trauma-recovery.net
Female Veterans In Townsville Barracks Speak Out About PTSD
Female veterans in Townsville are asking for more support, with ex-soldiers speaking out about challenges ranging from PTSD to a lack of recognition.
There are 571 women posted to Lavarack Barracks but female veterans say there is little in the way of services specifically targeted at women.
So far this year, 11 per cent of the soldiers admitted to the Townsville Soldier Recovery Centre have been women, up from 9 per cent last year and 8 per cent in 2013.
According to the 2010 ADF Mental Health Prevalence and Wellbeing Study, the rate of 12-month PTSD for women serving in defence was 10.1 per cent, compared to 9 per cent for women in Australia overall.
Ramon Fenton, once a corporal with the Australian Army, is the co-founder of the Women Veterans Association Australia on Facebook and said there were already about 10 people attending meet-ups in Townsville.
“We cope with things differently and it’s hard for females to open up and get help,” she said. “You don’t want to be classed as a sook or a whinger or a bludger or crybaby.”
Ms Fenton said that when she discharged there weren’t any female-based programs.
“Within six months I was reaching out and going ‘what is there for females? Where’s the programs, where’s the catch-ups, what’s there for us? It’s definitely something Townsville is really in need of.”
Ms Fenton said one aim of the group was to put a few women through pension and welfare courses. She was diagnosed with PTSD last year, after discharging in 2012 with a severe back injury. During her 16 years of service, she deployed four times. While deployed to Iraq in late 2004, American soldiers she had become friends with were killed in a rocket attack.
Read more in Townsville Bulletin.
Source: www.townsvillebulletin.com.au
Veteran Battles Back From PTSD
Bobby Yazza is just one soldier who served in the Iraq war – but his story is one shared by thousands of other veterans. He entered the military for patriotic reasons after Sept. 11, 2001, and served in Iraq. He came back alive, but with post-traumatic stress disorder, and has been struggling since then to get his life back. From 2003 to 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Defense, 4,491 U.S. troops died in Operation Iraqi Freedom and another 2,354 died in the Afghanistan theater of the war. Almost 32,000 troops were wounded. The Veterans Administration estimates that 11 percent to 20 percent of veterans of that war have PTSD.
Although his job with the Navajo Police was waiting for him, he couldn’t tolerate the work any longer. “It’s basically me trying to find myself. Everything is new,” he says. “I take it day-by-day.”
Read the full story in the Albuquerque Journal.
Source: www.abqjournal.com
Former WA Police Union President’s Interesting ANZAC Link
It is fitting in the year that we celebrate the centenary of Anzac Day that the WA Police Union acknowledge some of the interesting policing activities performed by former President Grenville Vaughn Purdue.
He is one of only four WAPU Presidents to serve two separate terms (1918-1919 and 1922-1924) and was one of the only serving members of WA Police to be tasked to work overseas with the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF).
Source: www.wapu.org.au