PTSD: An Ignored Enemy

            Combat is a traumatic experience for anyone that serves their country during a time of war. In today’s military, many soldiers return home and fail to get the help that they need to deal with the stressful situations they faced while serving overseas. 

            What the hospitals, psychiatric clinics, and outside agencies involved in helping these veterans fail to realize is that these wounds from combat may not always necessarily revolve around direct combat experiences. The wounds may be from stressful events that the person experienced while they were deployed and away from their family.

            In the recent Fort Lauderdale shootings, the family members stated that the shooter, Esteban Santiago, needed help after he returned home from Iraq. The shooter’s brother stated that he was hospitalized for four days and then released back into society. Furthermore, Santiago was experiencing visions of children being killed and destruction that he witnessed while he was overseas. Family members expressed concern of his behavior and stated that he was normal sometimes and other times he was not. 

            John Toombs, a member of the Tennessee Army National Guard from Murfreesboro, TN, was a veteran that needed assistance. He made a video that criticized the VA and then hung himself on the VA Medical Center campus in Murfreesboro. Prior to his death, he made a video and posted it on Facebook criticizing the Veteran’s Administration and how they handle veterans dealing with mental health issues related to combat. 

            These two cases, along with countless others, represent the growing issue of veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, popularly known as PTSD, and their lack of treatment they receive for such issues. Soldiers and other service members are returning home from the war zone but not returning home from the war. They are still seeing things in their minds, still experiencing traumatic events, and still having to fight the war every day from the moment they wake up until they go to sleep at night.

            PTSD is one of the most misunderstood mental health issues in the United States when it comes to veteran interaction with law enforcement. Many law enforcement officers who are not veterans or have not known someone who experienced this deadly disorder are not equipped with the proper tools to deal with such subjects. More importantly, the rate of violent interactions with suspects with PTSD is alarming. It reinforces the idea that law enforcement officers are not understanding this disorder and what it does to the mind of a person.

            In recent years, law enforcement agencies have heightened training for their officers in dealing with mentally ill suspects. When it comes to PTSD, it would certainly be beneficial to society for the VA to do their job and treat these men and women who have sacrificed vital years of their life in service to their country. It would also help for law enforcement agencies to have programs in place or officers on staff that specialize in dealing with these subjects.

            The alarming rate of veteran suicides should further reinforce the fact that the VA hospitals are not treating these men and women as they should be treated. Taking someone and placing them on medication and releasing them back into society only neutralizes the effect of PTSD to an extent. It does not totally eliminate the disorder. When these men and women return into society, they find difficulty adjusting and also relating to civilians. The critical point of this is that many officer-involved shootings, use of force incidents, and veteran suicides could be avoided if the service members would have received proper treatment for their disorders. 

            It is clear that the VA is not doing a good job in caring for the returning service members. More importantly, this lack of attention to these men and women not only hurts the service members, but it hurts their community and poses a risk to law enforcement agencies. Because of the lack of understanding how PTSD works and because the service members are not receiving proper treatment for their illness, many officers use force or arrest service members when they do not have to. 

            John Toombs, may you rest in peace and let your story and countless others be a testament to the urgency of the dangers of PTSD.

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