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PTSD Is a Nightmare. A Fully Funded VA Can Provide Relief.

PTSD is a scourge for military veterans. The good news is that the VA system provides specialized, high-quality care for PTSD; the bad news is that corporate-friendly politicians are privatizing this vital public health system.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the often-hidden wound of war.

Post-9/11 wars added hundreds of thousands of former service members to the patient rolls of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) — the nation’s largest public health care system — to get treatment for anger and depression, substance abuse, suicidal ideation, and past exposure to military sexual trauma. About 18 percent of returning Afghanistan and Iraq vets have been diagnosed with PTSD.

The importance of the VA’s specialized, high-quality care for nine million patients is well documented in Invisible Storm: A Soldier’s Memoir of Politics and PTSD, a new book by Army veteran Jason Kander, and a just-released documentary called Here. Is. Better. Directed by Emmy Award winner Jack Youngelson, the movie follows Kander and three other former soldiers as they seek VA retreat to improve their mental health.

The “invisible storm” in Kander’s title refers to the service-related condition they all share, which makes holding a job, getting an education, finding housing, or supporting a family very difficult for many veterans, even years after leaving the military. Youngelson and his documentary crew filmed all four PTSD sufferers during their interaction with family members, other participants in group therapy or peer counseling sessions, and their work with staffers of a VA-run residential treatment center in Cincinnati and the Veterans Community Project in Kansas City, which provides transitional housing and support services for homeless vets.

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