Excerpts & commentary on Time's article about the needs of female Veterans

Excerpts from Time Magazine article June 30, 2010. Orange text is my own emphasis; blue comments are my own opinions.

How We're Failing Our Female Veterans

By Laura Fitzpatrick

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2000829-1,00.html

“June Moss, 39, maneuvered a Humvee around charred corpses and still smoking shrapnel in Iraq in 2003…At home, after she was discharged from the military but before she was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the single mother couldn't find a job that paid enough to support her and two children. In 2005 her house went into foreclosure, and the next year she and her kids became homeless — a predicament made more painful by the fact that of the nearly 500 community homeless shelters funded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), only seven provide accommodations specifically for families. That year, Moss tried to kill herself.” (Picture: June Moss, 38, an army veteran who served for a decade and half around the world now suffers from PTSD. Photograph by Robyn Twomey for TIME.)

I haven't read the entire 74 page booklet about homeless vets, but I found this website that is addressing the problem of homeless veterans: http://www.va.gov/HOMELESS/docs/OpeningDoors2010FSP.pdf

"[Women] are nine times more likely to suffer from PTSD, which, along with other mental-health issues, afflicts roughly 1 in 10 soldiers returning from Iraq.”

In Search of Privacy

“Women and men don't react the same to certain medications, they develop some diseases at different rates, and they may display varying symptoms. Women may also have a different reaction to dry desert heat: some 34% of female vets evaluated at a VA health care facility from 2002 to 2008 returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with urinary-tract infections, reproductive-system problems, and other genitourinary issues — which may be brought on by dehydration, among other factors — compared with just 8% of male vets.”

"Starting a family or returning home to one presents unique challenges to women. Female soldiers on active duty are nearly three times as likely to get divorced as their male counterparts are. As of March 2009, some 30,000 single mothers had deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Female veterans are also at least twice as likely as civilian women to be homeless. And, says Pete Dougherty, head of the VA's homeless programs, the percentage of homeless female veterans is on the rise even as the overall number of homeless veterans is dropping.”

The Path to Female-Friendly Care

"So what's the solution? Advocates point to some bright spots in the landscape of care for these women. One of them is the Women's Prevention, Outreach and Education Center (WPOEC) in Menlo Park, Calif.”

Here is the website to WPOEC (which is another site I have to take a good look at): http://www.paloalto.va.gov/wpoec.asp

“Still, it's a start, and it's the kind of care veterans may see much more of if some ambitious initiatives take root. The VA is ramping up women-only treatment centers like the one in Menlo Park and adding all-female therapy groups, especially for sexual-assault survivors. Last year the VA finished installing a full-time women's veteran program manager at each of its 144 hospitals. These managers help coordinate care and sometimes direct women to private clinics, which often are geographically more convenient but may cost the government more: a 2008 audit by the VA's Office of Inspector General found that better monitoring of outsourced care could save the VA nearly $50 million over five years.”

"VA has also earmarked nearly $220 million in its 2011 budget for gender-specific care of female veterans, an increase of almost 10% from 2010. Among the initiatives the money will help fund is a 24/7 call center and a social-networking site for female combat veterans."

"For now, too few women have figured out how to navigate the byzantine system. But the lucky ones, like Moss, show what could be possible if bold new plans are backed up by the resources and the political will necessary to make them stick. These days, Moss works in chaplain services at the Palo Alto hospital, a job that's conveniently close to the VA clinic where she sees a therapist once a week. She says she no longer feels, as she did when she first got home from Iraq, "like a shell of a person." She hugs her kids again. She enjoys lunch at Olive Garden and what she calls "me time" at the hairdresser. She's even getting married in August, to a former Marine who, as she puts it, "understands PTSD." "It's not just being brave on the battlefield," she says of being a veteran. "You have to be brave in civilian life too.’”

I am so happy to hear that something is at least getting started in addressing issues that are specific to female veterans. I wish each one the very best. As always, a HUGE THANK YOU to all veterans for the service they provide for our country.

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Life & Death

For a while now, I've been working as a courier for a local hospice company. Many consider this a terrible job; scooting from house to house in which someone is going to die. My route takes me each day to our 5 bed unit at the local hospital as well. We just had two people die last night.

I think of this often, on my way in and out of the hospital: I take the elevator up to the third floor, and as I approach our wing, you can take a right and it takes you to the maternity ward; I don't know how to put my thoughts into words here, but here we have life and death, side by side.

On the west viewing side of the hospital we have women crying in pain and then crying with rejoice, followed by the tiny little cries that we all hope will lead a long and fulfilling life. Then, on the other side of the wall, there is quiet, sometimes accented by the cries of those who surround a life that is leaving this earth. Are they in pain? Are their thoughts plagued with regret, or rejoicing with happiness of a life they truly wanted to lead? Are they surrounded by loved ones, or are they visited by one of our caring volunteers that take time out of his or her life to spend with a dying stranger?

This morning, I heard fairly loudly a prayer being offered by one of our chaplains, and I wondered if that brought any comfort to the dying and to the family.

I used to work at a retirement home. Some local high school students came to the retirement home one year to host a "senior's prom," and they decorated it and dressed as if it were their own proms. Our "prom queen" couldn't dance; she was legally blind and could barely get around. Our "prom king" was a community fellow that came by to give dance lessons (he was no spring chicken either!). When their names were announced, he promptly went over to his queen and serenaded her. She was beaming from ear to ear.

She died last night around 4 am. I will think of her often, the "prom queen."