Imagine this. A young adult in today's military comes home from not one war, but more likely two or three in the span of their first enlistment, if you include National Guard or Reserve duty. After all they have done, seen, and lived, they are put through a "civilian reintegration process" that lasts roughly a week...a final pat on the back right before the soon-to-be-veteran is sent back home to wherever that is. Most of these soldiers never hear from their chosen branch of service again. So much might have changed during those periods of little to no family contact that "home" might not even be there for them when they get out. This disconnect from society, or everyday life and traditional family ties, specifically during war or times of conflict, is one of the leading causes of the rampant number of homeless and disabled veterans across the U.S.
There are very few equivalents to the amount of change and pressure that occurs in those few days of "reintegration." It would be like being removed from your entire family, fired from your job, and losing your home all at once, just as a start. If you were one of the 3.46 million veterans today who have experienced extreme physical trauma or arguably worse, severe mental damage from your active duty experiences, you were probably discharged with little to no warning after your accident or incident. This abrupt change leaves these individuals without help unless they want to count the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as a viable resource, which I certainly do not, but I'll get back to that later. Their branch of service ships them back to a home of record, and if that state is Texas, they may find that aside from a few key non-profits, and shallow state run benefits, there is nothing to welcome them home.
According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, Texas alone
holds almost 10% of the homeless veteran population, somewhere between 55,000 and 80,000 people. The large gap in those numbers stems from the lack of personal records and the high death rate of homeless individuals in our nation.
Now the question is, what is Texas doing about it?
Well, they'll give you a free fishing license. Texas will provide you with schooling benefits, that is, if you first use all of your G.I. Bill that you earned from your completed service. Texas will even give you some tax deductions on your land and vehicle, along with a few other benefits not worth mentioning if we don't first take a step back and ask the real question. What is being done to assure that Texas veterans are in a place, mentally, physically, and emotionally, where they can even begin to use these benefits? It seems that the answer by default is that it's the VA's responsibility. They are the organization responsible for the mental and physical health of veteran's, right? But if this organization hasn't even figured out how to build a national medical database, how are we to trust that it can accomplish anything meaningful for these veterans?
If a veteran needs assistance from the VA and is not in his or her city of record. they barely exist. Instead they face a lengthy registration process and will, in most cases, not see a physician on that same day. If they are in a different state, they don't exist at all. Veterans being denied service, even showing a VA Identification Card was a regular occurrence, even before we as a nation agreed to another war. That was over a decade ago, and little to nothing has changed. Couple that with their prescription drug restrictions, lack of qualified staff, and little to no mental health department, and what you have is federal organization that essentially has nothing to offer someone in serious need. Texas, unfortunately, isn't doing any better.
Instead of giving out menial benefits that help voters ease their conscience, Texas should be concentrating on mental health programs like Functional Restoration, Somatic Experiencing (SE), and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), all forms of therapy for mental disorders such as P.T.S.D. and Compartmentalization Disorder. Why isn't more being done to help such a large and powerful part of Texas when these forms of therapy have been statistically shown to help, if not reverse, the largest issues plaguing the mental health of veterans.
Until we face this issue at its root and stop shifting the blame to an obviously powerless entity, we will be leaving these, brave and broken, Texas men and women to their own fates. How can we truly be so unforgiving and careless after watching them face such trials, as to change or damage the whole of their being, from the comfort of our couches? I personally, as a veteran who had to seek private help for my changes, but only because I was lucky enough to have saved enough money during deployments to afford it, am ashamed of us. As a state that leads the way in so many things, we still fall radically short in so many others. Maybe this "change" we voted for 8 years ago will catch up to us someday. Until then, however, I'll remain a Texan in need of hope.
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