According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, there are roughly 200,000 homeless veterans any given night. They believe it is conservative to estimate that one out of three homeless men once served in the military.
Rob, who was in the Navy, says that the first thing they were told in boot camp was that their job was to die for their country. Period.
Now, clearly I am against the war and wish ever so much that big chunks of our military budget would be put into other things like, say, education and health care. But as a country who makes up the red portion of this pie:
shouldn't we have the budget to take care of the men and women who commit their lives to what they perceive to be our safety? Shouldn't they, of all people, be protected against homelessness by the government that sent them into the war zone in the first place, that asked them to put their lives in the hands of people in fancy suits living it up in DC?My guess is that starting with quality mental health care throughout their service and after would be a great place to start in combating vet homelessness...
2 comments:
The entire mental health system, military and civilian is reactive and backwards. Everyone should be screened as to possible mental health problems and the fact that such a large portion of America's combat veterans suffer from untreated mental health issues is proof that little if anything is being accomplished in the military or civilian sectors.
Am I making sense, it's a prozac day.
I can't agree with you more. We are a society that largely penalizes people for taking control of their mental health. I'm all but uninsurable because I spent many a year on anti-depressants... even though they allowed me to function and do tax generating stuff like work... I've heard military folks say they were ostracized by their units when they sought mental health care.
We have to start with our thinking and follow with money and policy.
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