By SARAH CHACKO | Medill News Service
WASHINGTON — After facing the challenges of war, returning veterans face hardships dealing with the health care, education and employment systems, veteran advocates said Friday.
The health needs of returning veterans are considerable – increased diagnosis of brain cancer, emphysema, traumatic brain injuries, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Suicide among war fighters has become an often sought story, said Ami Neiberger-Miller, public affairs officer for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors. She spoke on a panel about issues facing returning vets during the Military Reporters and Editors Conference in Washington. The Medill National Security Journalism Initiative and the National Institute of Military Justice at American University were co-sponsors.
When Neiberger-Miller started working with an organization for military families who had lost loved ones, she would get about three calls a week from people whose family members committed suicide. Now she deals with closer to 10 families a week.
Neiberger, whose brother was killed in combat in 2007, said families spend the first couple of years after the loss going on their own quest for information.
“People who have completed that process are often the people who can reflect the best on what led their loved one to that point – flaws in the system, symptoms or signs that were missed,” Neiberger-Miller said.
Steve Robinson, vice president for Veterans Affairs within Prudential, and Tim Embree, legislative associate for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, described employment obstacles faced by vets.
Recent unemployment numbers for the general population, while high, have been stable, Embree said, but unemployment among veterans has been getting worse.
“It’s a struggle to make the leap from military to civilian life,” Embree said.
Vets have to learn how to translate the valuable decision-making and leadership skills they learned in the military to the civilian workforce, he said.
Embree, a former Marine Corps reservist, said it is harder to get federal officials and legislators to put veterans on their agendas for employment, health care and education because they make up such a small portion of the constituency.
Robinson, who served in the Army for 20 years, noted that the public’s investment in military issues has also diminished since the 1940s. In World War II, 16 percent of the population was employed in some role that supported the war. It has decreased since then, from 6 percent during the Vietnam War to 3 percent during the Gulf War to less than 1 percent today.
“It’s not on people’s radar,” he said. “[Veterans] are bearing a burden that 99 percent of America doesn’t have to bear.”
