Notebook #1

February 24, 2021

Despite only 18.5% of United States

combat veterans coming home from
Afghanistan and Iraq with
diagnosed PTSD, many veterans
report some PTSD symptoms
following their deployment. Like in
this picture, soldiers experience
unimaginable trauma on the
battlefield, and many come home
with those images engrained in
their minds. To me, this depicts the
lack of proper care for veterans, and
the sad reality that many struggle
with the disorder without the
diagnosis and the help they need.

Many brave men and women who

have served in our military come
home only to live on the streets. The
US Department of Housing and Urban
Development estimates that nearly
40,000 veterans are homeless. This
picture shows a common sight in
large cities; a veteran sitting outside,
begging for any type of aid.
Personally, this image shows me the
sheer lack of money allocated to
Veteran’s Affairs programs, which
desperately needs to be addressed.
The compilation of various graphs above show staggering statistics pertaining to PTSD
in veterans. The data demonstrates that the amount of veterans diagnosed with PTSD
is almost double that of the general public diagnosed with PTSD; it also shows the
drastic majority of veterans that experienced potentially traumatizing events, and how
many of those events they have been through. I consider these statistics to show the
true trauma of combat, just how detrimental it can be to the human brain, and the
underestimation of potential PTSD symptoms in veterans.

A common assumption is that recently

returned veterans are the ones struggling
the most from PTSD, homelessness, or
other issues. Sadly, many of our mentally
ill and homeless veterans are older;
veterans of the Korean, Vietnam, and
Gulf Wars. These men and women are
often the most reliant on Veterans Affairs
programs; personally, I consider these
veterans to be vital to our community,
and giving them proper care and funding
is essential.
Often, funding of the Department of Veterans Affairs appears as much more than it
actually is. Veterans hospitals and clinics are still severly underequipped, understaffed,
and underfunded; the rise in veterans requiring services from the VA health system,
made obvious in the graph, shows that the funds may be increasing, but not nearly
enough to meet the growing demand for services. The government is heading in the
right direction, and personally, the growing budget is reflective of the country’s
growing compassion and devotion to respecting our veterans’ service and
commitment.