Military Reaching Out to Active-Duty Personnel and Veterans Suffering From PTSD

On May 20th the Department of Defense Bloggers Roundtable presented an online panel concerning PTSD help for active-duty military personnel and veterans. The roundtable was coordinated by the Defense Centers of Excellence and the three panel members were:

Commander Rene Campos, deputy director, Government Relations, Military Officers Association of America

Staff Sergeant Meg Krause, U.S. Army Reserve, Real Warriors Campaign volunteer

Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Robinson, senior executive for Psychological Health, Defense Centers of Excellence.

What came out of this online panel discussion were two major problems hindering getting help with PTSD:

1) Active-duty military personnel and veterans do not always know about the options out there to help them.

2) Active-duty military personnel especially are often afraid to seek help because of fears how this might affect their military career.

All the panel participants repeatedly said that seeking help would NOT affect a person’s military career.

The panel also provided these important websites for military personnel and veterans seeking help with PTSD: www.dcoe.health.mil and www.realwarriors.net

Another military program for active duty personnel is the In Transition program, which assigns a coach who is a licensed mental health clinician. The telephone number to get help is 1-800-424-7877.

The mission of the DCoE is: “DCoE assesses, validates, oversees and facilitates prevention, resilience, identification, treatment, outreach, rehabilitation, and reintegration programs for psychological health and traumatic brain injury to ensure the Department of Defense meets the needs of the nation's military communities, warriors and families.”

And: “The Real Warriors Campaign is an initiative launched by the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) to promote the processes of building resilience, facilitating recovery and supporting reintegration of returning service members, veterans and their families.

And if you or anyone you know may be suffering from PTSD, please seek help now. (If you are not sure what are the symptoms of PTSD, see http://www.insupportofourtroops.com/ptsd-info/)

FYI -- Join the Facebook page of PTSD Walk Across America at www.facebook.com/PTSDWalk and read my blog post about this upcoming project.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. Phyllis' company MillerMosaicLLC.com does power marketing that combines traditional marketing principles and Internet marketing strategies to put power in your hands.