"Improving
quality of life for chronically ill persons through basic and applied
research"
Center
for Gerontology
& Health Care Research
& Health Care Research
|
"Improving
quality of life for chronically ill persons through basic and applied
research"
|
Center
for Gerontology
& Health Care Research |
|
Supported
Data News |
Bob
Kerr: Veterans Can Speak Up and Help Out When you get back to the world, don't take all that gruesome, haunting, sleep-stealing war baggage off to some private corner. Don't let it turn into a daily pile of dread. Haul it into the daylight. Share it. Make it work for you and other people who will come after you. "We don't really have a good catalogue of issues and concerns," says Linda Resnik, a research health scientist with the Department of Veterans Affairs in Providence. Resnik wants soldiers and Marines injured in Iraq and Afghanistan to tell her and other researchers what isn't being done for them. She wants to know what they're bringing home. And she wants to use the information to fill the gaps in treatment. And there are gaps. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have created their own set of problems. And the Department of Veterans Affairs is playing catchup. "The war in Iraq is unique in that so many are National Guard and Reserve," says Resnik. "These people don't have the same support structures that they'd have at military bases when they come home." She says there is also not a lot of support for families who endure the stress and uncertainty of having a member of the family at war. "We see a lot of unmet needs for support services," says Resnik. "The big thing is 'Can they return to their jobs? And was the job held for them?' Being injured, they might not be coping well." So she wants to hear from wounded veterans. She is calling her research study Life After War: Experiences of Injured Soldiers. It doesn't involve a lot of time and none of the information provided will find its way into anyone's military files. "It's been hard to recruit people," says Resnik. "You get the sense that this is very personal, that they have other priorities. But this is strictly confidential." The study involves no more than two hours in interviews or discussion groups. Those participating will be asked about the changes they faced on coming home, how they are coping or not coping with life after the madness of Iraq and Afghanistan. They will be paid $20 for taking part. Think about it. Years down the road, people might come home from war and have an easier time of it because you stepped up and talked about the experience. And just letting it all out is far better than keeping it all in. "There's never been a concerted effort to say 'How are we doing?' " says Resnik. She is trying to do that -- trying to find out how wounded veterans feel about the system that is supposed to help them. "Our ultimate goal is to bring them back to the community as close to their pre-injury lives as possible," she says. Remember, it was years after the Vietnam War that post traumatic stress disorder was even accepted as a diagnosis. And it was years after that war before veterans' officials finally faced up to the poisonous legacy of Agent Orange. If veterans coming home now can make it as clear as possible what the war has done to them, maybe needed change can happen more quickly. Maybe if Linda Resnik and other researchers can put together the volume of information they require to make the needs of returning veterans crystal clear, there will not be the kind of high level denial that kept so many Vietnam veterans from receiving the right kind of help. It seems one hell of a good way for a veteran to pass along some hard-earned lessons for others to benefit from. If you are a wounded veteran of Afghanistan or Iraq and are interested in taking part in the study, call Resnik at (401) 863-9214. Bob Kerr can be reached by e-mail at bkerr [at] projo.com |
Bob Kerr: Veterans can speak up and help out |
|
© 2005 The Center
for Gerontology & Health Care Research. |