NPR has another great story today, on a few OIF/OEF (Iraq and Afghanistan) combat veterans telling their stories in a public setting, in an attempt to defuse potential conflict with the communities where they live, especially with the police. The story is called, "Dialogue Bridges Divide between Vets and Police," reported by Libby Lewis, and you can read the story or listen to it, here. It highlights the work being done by Jay White of the Hartford, Connecticut Vet Center, a facility funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs. According to Lewis, "before becoming a counselor, White served two tours in Iraq. The dialogues he moderates are meant to connect veterans with people who have no experience with war, namely people who deal with trouble — like police and emergency rescue personnel. These are the people whom soldiers returning home often find themselves dealing with." It's great to see necessary, proactive stuff like this.
A surprising statistic, quoted in the story, by Brian Killany, a police crisis negotiator:
"The chances of [veterans] becoming a target group for us to have to deal with as a [police] negotiator is probably better than 50-50.”
Y-I-K-E-S. Forewarned is forearmed -- no pun intended. So much better to prepare for this in the way this program is doing, than be surprised by it -- when it's clearly a strong possibililty.
The NPR story also highlights the work of a Connecticut-based group, "Brothers in Arms," which the program says is "run by Iraq veterans with a mission of helping other returning soldiers. They also organize public speaking events to create awareness among civilians about the struggles of war veterans." Their information is linked here.
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In addition, although not mentioned in the story, there's a great, 10 minute long video available on YouTube, which we blogged about here, by William R. Keating and the Norfolk County (Massachusetts) District Attorney's Office. It's called "PTSD and Veterans: Beyond the Yellow Ribbon," and part of what it addresses is the re-integration of a combat veteran into his or her community, including the possibility of conflict with the police, and how both sides can manage that. Well worth watching and bookmarking. The blog post we did about it a year or so ago is linked here, and it includes the video.
(Other counties in Massachusetts and in other states should consider contact William Keating's office and seeing if they can use the video with their constituents. Information useful for contacting the Norfolk County (Massachusetts) District Attorney's office is linked, here.)
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Recently, we blogged about the similarities that cops and troops share in their exposure to cumulative increments of trauma, which often result -- for either of them -- in PTSD. Ultimately, cops and troops may find out that they may find out they have more in common than they thought -- in terms of what they've been exposed to in their lines of work -- not just wearing uniforms, working out and carrying guns to work.
Editor's note: The Hartford, Connecticut Vet Center information is linked here. The directory lists Jay White but provides no additional contact information for him; undoubtedly, he can be reached the Center.
