According to an article published today on the Marine Corps' website, it does look like the Wounded Warrior Project's conference on handling combat stress did go forward in NYC last week, despite the bad weather. Read more about the conference as the Marine Corps reported it, here. The conference was free (but still, in NYC, so expensive for anyone not local to attend), and intended for current veterans and their family members in scope, but only 17 people showed up. Whether the conference promoters found this discouraging or not, or perhaps just par for the course with starting up something new, is hard to tell. There were two quotes from the article that stood out:
First quote, and the Marine Corps' commentary on it (the Marine Corps, btw, was not affiliated with the conference directly): “I thought the conference was successful. The hardest part of it all was to get service members to attend the conference. Often times the macho-ness of a service member may get in the way of them asking for help,” said Schwat [the conference organizer]. Reluctance to attend the conference may have stemmed from the fear of service members being labeled as having a post traumatic stress disorder, said Schwat. He emphasized that the conference was strictly for combat stress and nothing more laying to rest the concerns of many service members.
Second quote: “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with asking for help. As long as there has been war, there has been combat stress, and the service member in combat has been placed in an abnormal situation. So, certainly that will impact them later on down the line, and the important thing is to get help in any way, shape, or form,” said Schwat.
It seems like this is a message that will need to continue getting out over time, to break down the initial resistance of some who such programs are likely to help. Let's hope for the best.
Contact information for the Wounded Warrior Project is available on their website, www.woundedwarriorproject.org.
