Published: December 14, 2007 12:14 pm            

Mother raises funds for veterans center

EDMOND — The joy troops feel when returning home from war is too often replaced by depression, anxiety, family problems, even sometimes post traumatic stress disorder as days turn to months.

A new Pentagon study reveals that nearly one-third of 88,000 veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq confront mental health problems. The study is reported in the November issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The suicide rate in the Army has reached its highest level in 26 years, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

The reintegration time that the Department of Defense provides for troops coming home is between 96 hours to five days, said Cindy Collins-Clark of Edmond, founder of Veterans’ Families United Foundation.

Clark founded the organization in 2006 to provide compassionate, holistic resources to encourage healing from combat trauma and a healthy transition from military service to civilian life.

The 2006 Oklahoma Mother of the Year and licensed mental health counselor long has contended that the readjustment period for military men and women returning from war needs to be longer.

Clark has proposed a Readjustment Facility and Family Annex for Veterans to help reduce the severity of mental illness. She said the project is considered by the Department of Defense as too expensive to be part of the overall military process. So she’s trying to raise $1.5 million of private funding for a center for veterans and their family members. So far, nobody has responded to her proposals.

“A readjustment period theoretically could reduce the severity of mental illness, of violence in homes, of incarcerated veterans — the total cost to our government,” Clark said.

Clark has three degrees to her credit, two of which are master’s degrees in education and counseling from the University of Central Oklahoma. She became a professional counselor in 2000.

The facility she has designed involves a gentle environment including a rest house, a therapeutic wing, chapel, library, a family annex, play room for children’s therapy, apartments and a room for veterans support groups. Veterans, children and family members would have access to a recreational center.

A veteran’s discharge papers would be the criteria for admission, followed by a mental health assessment at no cost to the veteran.

“I see this as a model. ... Everything would be research based,” Clark said.

She became an advocate for veterans’ mental health after her son returned home from Iraq with post traumatic stress disorder. The Veterans Administration reported that 317,000 veterans were treated for PTSD at VA medical centers and clinics in 2005.

U.S. Army Reserve Spc. Joe Collins served honorably after volunteering for active duty in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He returned from Iraq in April 2004, after a year of service.

The Edmond Santa Fe High School graduate was with the 353rd Engineer Group of the Army Reserves in Oklahoma. He volunteered to serve as a heavy machine and generator mechanic and escort in Iraq with the 285th Engineer Co., U.S. Army Reserves out of Baton Rouge, La. Now, his PTSD has cost him his home, job and peace of mind. He is cared for by his mother and stepfather in their Edmond home.

PTSD is a normal reaction to a traumatic experience that could be experienced by almost anyone, according to the Veterans Center in Oklahoma City. Symptoms include severe depression and anxiety.

Nightmares and insomnia can be caused by the body producing excessive amounts of adrenaline for months after returning home. Some people have a delayed reaction of PTSD occurring months or years following the trauma, according to the Vet Center in Oklahoma City. Veterans might respond to memories of trauma by pretending it never happened. The disorder can be triggered by stimulus that the individual cannot control.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. PTSD causes unrelenting fear and memories of their traumatic account, detachment with loved ones, sleep problems and being easily startled.

“The importance that I see in having a center like this for people with PTSD is there are key points that would help a lot of people,” Collins said. He said veterans with PTSD are resistant to getting help from the VA because they fear losing their job and military status and facing embarrassment.

“You can see the symptoms but you can’t see it like somebody that’s just lost a hand in combat,” he said. “... It affects their mental capability. So usually by the time when they go to the VA or get paperwork sent through for disability, they’re so sick that if they don’t have the right advocates to help them get this done, they’re easily overwhelmed by small daily things.”

Collins said it also would be helpful if the military would provide counselors and psychologists in the field with combat units exposed to traumatic violence.

“Whether they want to or not, if they’re exposed to something like that, (there should be) mandatory appointments set up with a licensed professional where they have to go talk to them to get this stuff off their chest,” he said. “That’s the ground work for post traumatic stress disorder. You’re exposed to trauma and you don’t desensitize from it. It just gets buried into you.”

When in Iraq, Collins said he was once persuaded by his 1st Sergeant not to seek help in a nearby mental health clinic.

“He said it could show up negatively later on in my military career if I did go over there,” Collins said. “He recommended that I just wait ’til I got home and then saw private treatment.”



TO LEARN MORE about Veterans’ Families United, visit www.veteransfamiliesunited.org/link_to_us.html or call 535-1925.

        

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