NPR had a distressing story about soldiers with PTSD. Not all bases are the same. Some take better care of their personnel. Some don’t. I’m on the board of the EMDR-Humanitarian Assistance Program. Among other things, our organization gives low cost trainings to military psychotherapists and VA therapists. It’s disheartening to hear what is happening to some of our returning soldiers. If you want, after you listen to this, forward it to your senator or congressperson, with a clear note of what you’d like them to do about it.
HAP trains therapists in trauma treatment at trouble spots (inner-city community mental health centers, rape crisis centers, disaster sites, all over the U.S. and all over the world. They trained people in New Orleans and Mississippi after Katrina, New York City after 9/11, they do trainings in India, Indonesia, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Turkey (after earthquakes), and many other places. There are hundreds of EMDR-trained volunteers in a Trauma-Recovery Network ready to do individual trauma therapy. Many from my area (the Pacific Northwest) worked with Hurricane Katrina survivors. If you want more information about HAP, click here.