Street roots
Jan. 6, 2012
VETERANS, from page 8
to Alison Hickey, Under Secretary for
Benefits at the U.S. VA.
“Those claims are coming in far more
complex than we have experienced in past
conflicts, largely for a good news reason,”
Hickey said. “Our veterans are ... 10 times
more likely to survive a major injury or
illness and that’s a good thing, but that
means that we are going to be taking care
of many more people for some very
serious injuries for a long time.”
McNabb, in addition to his PTSD,
suffered a traumatic brain injury, which
has impaired his memory. Landau said
they see many veterans with knee, back,
shoulder and neck injuries as a result of
the 80 to 100 pounds of equipment they
carry on missions - injuries not outwardly
apparent as combat related.
Donovan said there is an increased risk
of substance abuse in U.S. veterans who
suffer debilitating injuries because doctors
often prescribe potentially addictive
painkillers.
John Alford, 57, turned to the bottle
after serving in Northern Ireland. Blinded
in one eye by a nail bomb during his
service with the First Gloucestershire
Regiment, he saw two colleagues shot by
snipers.
“You can never forget something like
that,” he said. “After I left the army, I
found it difficult to fit in and settle
anywhere, and drink becomes something
you suppress it all with. I lost a lot through
it. I’ve been married four times.” Alford is
sober now and is establishing a new life,
assisted by the Forces Self Build Scheme
in Bristol, a program that is helping
ex-service personnel build their own
housing.
Such grassroots initiatives, national
veterans’ charities and government
agencies have launched scores of programs
in recent years to help military personnel
with everything from housing to job
training and advice. Many also connect
veterans with veterans to give them a new
sense of community and common
experience.
Angell says many of the staff at the VA’s
300 centers across the United States are
former combat veterans like McNabb who
understand the trauma of life under fire.
ryan Green, 64, a former staff
sergeant in the UK’s Royal Electrical
Mechanical Engineers, found it hard to
adapt to civilian life after a quarter century
in the military and suffered a breakdown
three years ago. He finds the sense of
belonging at Norcare’s veterans’ center
invaluable.
“It takes a long time to re-adjust. Bills
and everything else have been done for
you, so you don’t have a clue. And you’re
not part of a team. Suddenly the army is
B
gone. A door has been shut in your life,”
Green said. “When I can talk about these
things with these guys, people who have
been through the same things, it means a
lot. ... Bills and everything else have been
done for you, so you don’t have a clue. And
you’re not part of a team. Suddenly the
army is gone”
Phil Quesnelle, recently released from
the Canadian Forces on disability after
receiving a diagnosis of PTSD, sits on the
board of the South Mid Vancouver Island
Zone Veterans Housing Society, which
founded a transitional residence devoted to
ex-service personnel struggling to find
shelter.
He also acts as a peer counselor,
offering others the benefit of his
experience.
“It’s not a switch you can turn on or
off,” Quesnelle said. “But people expect
you to go back to normal over the span of
that 10-hour flight back to Canada. It
doesn’t work that way and people just
don’t understand it.”
Conscious of the disproportionate
numbers of ex-service personnel in the
ranks of U.S. unemployed, the VA has
hired 400 formerly homeless veterans to
act as peer counselors for those trying to
find work. They coach on resumes, talk
through interviews and are at the end of a
telephone to give support through the
sometimes stressful early days on a new
job.
It has also set up a new human
resources office that helps job-seekers
translate their work in the military into
civilian job skills along with guidance on
applications.
“We’re being very proactive because
honestly since poverty is the definer of the
pathway to homelessness, if at least we
can drop that unemployment rate for our
newest veterans coming back, that should
be a big prevention strategy,” said the VA’s
Angell.
The VA also negotiates with lenders to
help veterans who can’t afford rent, and
says its efforts kept 9 percent more
veterans in their homes last year compared
to prior years.
“It can be quite expensive to try to get
someone who has been chronically
homeless for many years off the street and
stabilized, compared to what it might take
to prevent it,” Angell said. “You can help
someone with two months’ rent, compared
to what it would cost in 10 years to help
this person get off the street and deal with
other health issues.”
Hugh Milroy, who served in the first
Gulf War and is now CEO of UK charity
Veterans Aid, believes veterans are actually
“citizens-plus” in Britain, with the
government as well as 3,000 charities
offering support. He worries that too
much focus on the homelessness issue
may brand veterans as victims.
He agrees the situation is tougher in the
United States, in part because of the
absence of universal health care and a
strong social safety net.
Denmark’s support for its returnees is
not as pronounced as in some other
countries, according to street newspaper
"Those claim s are coming la far more complex than we have
experienced la past conflicts^ largely for a good news reason.
Our veterans are ... 10 times more lik e ly to survive a m ajor
In ju ry or illness and that's a good thing, but that means that
we are going to be taking care of many more people for some
very serious Injuries for a long tim e /'
™
~ ALISOM HtC«¥
U N D E R S E C R E T A R Y F O R B E N E F IT S A T T H E U N IT E D S T A T E S D E P A R T M E N T O F V E T E R A N S
A FFSA RS
Hus Forbi. The Ministry of Defence there
puts returning soldiers through a three-
month acclimatization program. Six
months after their return, they are asked
to fill out a questionnaire. One-third of
veterans never reply.
Donovan of the National Coalition for
the Homeless in the United States says
the increases in funding under the Obama
administration will inevitably reduce the
number of veterans on the streets, but he
worries Congress may turn its attention
elsewhere once the United States has
withdrawn from Iraq.
“We’re a country suffering from ADD.
and when we aren’t at war we’re going to
stop thinking about veterans and we’re
going to think about something else,”
Donovan said.
The key, he said, is ensuring that
enough permanent housing is built via
programs like the VA’s Veterans Affairs
Supportive Housing program, where
veterans get vouchers for housing
organized by local housing authorities in
the United States.
“It reminds me of antibiotics,” Donovan
said. “If you give somebody two doses the
first day and another dose and another
dose and all of a sudden they start feeling
better and you don’t give them the last
three days, what happens? The person’s
going to get sick again and when it comes
back, it’s going to be medically resistant,
it’s going to be treatment-resistant. That’s
what happens with these populations. You
don’t solve the problem. You pour tons of
money into it, you pay attention to it, but
you don’t solve the problem and it
becomes socially resistant.”
A dditional reporting by Joanne Zuhl/Street
Roots, Portland; Yvonne Robertson/
Megaphone Canada; A dam Forrest/The
B ig Issue UK; Sim on A nkjœ rgaard/H us
Forbi and Danielle Batist/Street News
Service.
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by Aaron Randazzo
This seemingly dual being, humanity
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Murmurs in the wind may help us to see
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Love being ... be loved”
Rain upon reign with chants
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Question authority for its deceitful glamour
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Build trust in the Mother of all things
Who shakes the Earth, dances and sings:
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