Supporting the Employment Success of Veterans with TBI & PTSD (The Real Story)

Due to a PTSD flashback caused by harassment from a co-worker, I was terminated from employment. Sec 12112 of the Americans with Disabilities Act states No covered entity shall discriminate against a qualified individual with a disability because of the disability of such individual in regard to job application procedures, the hiring, advancement, or discharge of employees, employee compensation, job training, and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment. PTSD is a disability.

I am writing this blog because the numbers of veterans with PTSD will grow more and more and this disability must get recognized as a disability that can be controlled, can be accommodated, and employment can be part of rehabilitation. Termination based off of ignorance or reluctance is just adding to the grim numbers of our veterans. As the 9th Circuit noted in Humphrey v. Memorial Hospital Ass'n 239 F.3d 1128 (2001), conduct resulting from a disability is considered to be part of the disability, rather than a separate basis for termination.

The facts given below paint a very eye opening picture of what our nation faces.

http://www.aflcio.org/issues/politics/upload/unionveterans2008_keyfacts.pdf

I would like to introduce the readers to author Aaron Glantz.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9yRp0mFS3U

Reviews of "The War Comes Home" --

"A breathtaking rebuke to government hypocrisy and an overdue contribution to gaining critical public awareness of this official neglect."—Publishers Weekly

"Aaron Glantz is one of the truly outstanding young journalists of our times." —Bob McChesney, author of Rich Media, Poor Democracy, and founder of Free Press

"One of the many scandals of the war in Iraq is how the administration has betrayed our returning servicemen. I'm grateful that the facts surrounding these tragedies are finally being exposed."—Paul Haggis, Academy-Award-winning director of Crash and In the Valley of Elah, screenwriter of Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima

"A must-read for those who claim to support our troops."—Robert G. Gard, Lt. General, U.S. Army (ret.)

"The treatment by the Bush Administration of America's returning veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is one of the saddest chapters in American history. This story is painfully documented by Aaron Glantz. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to make the phrase, 'Support the Troops,' more than a slogan."—Former US Senator Max Cleland

"A fitting tribute to what these men and women fought and risked their lives and well-being for."—Gerald Nicosia, author of Home to War

"This superbly documented and eloquent book is a clarion call for honesty, compassion, outrage, and an end to the lies that cause so much suffering in far-off countries and in our own nation."—Norman Solomon, author of War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death

"Aaron Glantz draws on his eyewitness experiences of reporting in Iraq to bring the courage and the suffering of our troops into vivid relief. The War Comes Home exposes how physical and mental injuries plague our returning servicemen and what we can do about it."—Linda Bilmes, coauthor of The Three Trillion Dollar War

"Weep, America, cringe, America. We talk a good game about honoring all those who go into harm's way for our sake and caring for those who get physically and psychologically broken, but do we go beyond fine words and a few gold-plated flagship medical facilities? Are we walking the walk? Are we getting it right? Aaron Glantz is in our face on the military treatment facilities, the VA, and civilian society at large."—Jonathan Shay, MD, PhD, author of Achilles in Vietnam and Odysseus in America. MacArthur Fellow

"Aaron Glantz reports on the human cost of war, what it does physically and emotionally to those young men and women who carry out industrial slaughter. He rips apart the myths we tell ourselves about war and illustrates, in painful detail, the dark psychological holes that those who have been through war's trauma endure and will always endure. He reminds us that the essence of war is not glory, heroism, and honor but death."—Chris Hedges, former New York Times foreign correspondent, author of War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning

"We should all be reading people like Greg Palast and Aaron Glantz."—Al Kennedy, The Guardian (UK)

The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle against America's Veterans

Unfortunately such extraordinary measures are necessary because the current system for providing assistance to veterans doesn’t work in any fashion that one could describe as adequate, or in a timely manner. Quite often, the need for assistance becomes moot after the death of the veteran, incarceration, addiction, or economic ruin have rendered the assistance too little and too late.

Moving through the terminal was a group of soldiers in their “camos,” as they began heading to their gate. Everybody (well almost everybody) was abruptly on their feet with their hands waving and cheering. When I saw the soldiers (probably 30-40 of them) being applauded and cheered for, it hit me. I’m not alone! I’m not the only red-blooded American, who still loves this country, and who supports our troops and their families. Of course I immediately stopped and began clapping for these young unsung heroes, who are putting their lives on the line every day for us, so we can go to school, work, church and home without fear of reprisal. Just when I thought I could not be more proud of my country or of our service men and women, a young girl, no more than 6 or 7 years old, ran up to one of the male soldiers. He knelt down and said, “Hi.”

The little girl then asked him if he would give something to her Daddy for her. The young soldier (he couldn’t be any older than maybe 22 himself) said he would try and what did she want to give him to give to her daddy? Then suddenly the little girl grabbed the neck of this soldier, gave him the biggest hug she could muster and then kissed him on the cheek.

The mother of the little girl, who said her daughter’s name was Courtney, told the young soldier that her husband was a marine and had been in Iraq for 11 months now. As the Mom was explaining how much her daughter Courtney missed her father, the young soldier’s eyes began to tear up.

When this temporarily single Mom was done explaining the situation, all of a sudden the soldiers huddled together for a brief second. One of the servicemen then pulled out a military looking walkie-talkie. They started playing with the device and talking back and forth on it. After about 10-15 seconds of this, the young soldier walked back over to Courtney, bent down and said this to her, “I spoke with your Daddy, and he told me to give this to you.”

He then hugged this little girl that he had just met and gave her a kiss on the cheek, he finished by saying, “Your Daddy told me to tell you that he loves you more than anything and he is coming home soon.” The Mom at this point was crying almost uncontrollably, and when the young soldier got on his feet, he saluted Courtney and her Mom. I was standing no more than six feet away from where this entire event unfolded. As the soldiers began to leave heading towards their gate, people resumed their applause.

As I stood there applauding and looked around, there were no dry eyes, including my own. The young soldier in a last act of selflessness turned around and blew a kiss to Courtney with a tear rolling down his cheek.”

The first thing a soldier says when asked, “What can we do to make things better for you?” No hesitation from him/her. “We need your support and your prayers” is the reply.

Therefore the American people should continue to pray for the military wherever its units are. We can be proud in stating what we’ve been told over and over again, “We live in the land of the free, only because of the brave:”

We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude!

When asked about the "war on terror" phrase by CNN's Anderson Cooper, Obama said, "Well you know, I think it is very important for us to recognize that we have a battle or a war against some terrorist organizations … Words matter in this situation because one of the ways we're going to win this struggle is through the battle of hearts and minds."

I think we should start looking what the war is doing to us here, how our country is starting to put us back on the streets, just like Vietnam

I am writing this blog with the hopes of bringing light to the nation to the struggles facing all that suffer with Psychiatric Disabilities. With the terror attacks at 911 to the shooting at VCU you would assume that this Country is “Gun Shy” towards our veterans when it comes to PTSD. This blog is written on behalf of all that suffer from this disability of PTSD, the rape victims, the police officer , or the child that is being abused.

As I continue to read more and more about the economy, about the unemployment rates, about the homeless veterans, about the increasing number of deployments, the increased focus on Veteran health care, I believe we are missing the issue and that being employment success outside of the military.