Ms. Vargas
English 4AP
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Veteran Unemployment/VA Programming
In April of last year, the Army launched a "Hire a Veteran" campaign aimed at debunking the myth that all combat veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are somehow emotionally damaged and therefore unstable. An estimated 5%-20% of the veterans who served since 9/11 have PTSD. The Department of Veterans Affairs reports 117,000 diagnosed cases and 1 in 3 employers see PTSD as an impediment to hiring any veteran (Zoroya, USA Today). Because it is against the law for employers to ask applicants about mental health conditions, many assume that any veteran can be suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) although, according to researchers, veterans, and advocates say the vast majority returned from war without emotional problems. Leading corporate hiring managers have told researchers they fear these veterans might fly into a rage or "go postal." As a result, veterans say they've seen blatant discrimination. Timothy "Rhino" Paige, a former Air Force pilot who developed PTSD in 2005, sought federal work in Colorado in 2010 under laws offering disabled veterans preferential hiring consideration, he says he didn't even get an interview.
According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, the US Department of Veteran affairs, says that there are 57,849 homeless veterans on any given night. Each year, VA’s specialized homelessness programs provide health care to almost 150,000 homeless veterans and other services to more than 112,000 veterans. They also claim to provide more than 40,000 homeless veterans with compensation or pension benefits each month. VA, using its own resources as well as partnerships with others, has secured nearly 15,000 residential rehabilitative and transitional beds and more than 30,000 permanent beds for homeless veterans throughout the nation. There are 144 programs