Furloughs Threaten Military Mental Health...

When is the Government going to get it that Mental health among its service members needs to be supported?

Due to the furloughs, it seems that the Military took a kick in the shorts. From everything to commissaries shortening  their hours to civilian workers with in our military medical system taking a cut. It sucks. But really grinds my teeth, is the cut back to the already failing system our men and women in uniform have for their mental health. Its bad enough that Families that have special needs have to worry about their services being cut, on top of that many of them are returning back from the War Zones this country has sent them to, without a proper mental evaluation. Its like people think they can just carry back on to the routine of normal life, after being in such extreme conditions or seeing things that the every day joe shmoe wouldn't see.

It has been proven through history that after wars have taken place, the returning servicemen and women had PTSD or as they called it back then Shell Shock. A large majority of those coming back from WWI and WWII were undiagnosed. It wasn't until Vietnam that people started to notice that our Veterans needed help coping with returning back to the way of life they had before they left. Even still it was lacking.

It bothers me that the Mental Health of our military is considered a back burner issue. It me it seems like the Government thinks its got super humans, who can deal with anything thrown at them. Which isn't the case.

So with this furlough, there is cuts made to the mental health program that does exist for our military. Many Behavioral Health Professionals are not accessible to those who desperately need it. But it all goes back to looking at Washington. Do they really care? I'd like to think they do. But it seems as of late, they have forgotten about us. They have forgotten the job they ask us to do. They have forgotten what its like to look into the eyes of a member of the military returning back and seeing the pain, stress, and the sadness and most importantly the struggle they have just coping. They have forgotten that Mental illness is invisible.  Just because they have come back with all of their body parts, doesn't mean they don't need support. They have forgotten about the families that have to live with someone that has PTSD. Yes, we are in this too. Its time for the government to see what its doing to its military. Yes they want us to protect America's freedom and borders. But yet they aren't willing to help us out when we need it.

Just my two cents.

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2013/03/14/furloughs-threaten-militarys-mental-health-ranks.html