“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
John Fitzgerald Kennedy

I wanted to wait until the day after Veterans Day this year to write here.  Veterans Day is special, but it is the day, and many days after, that really matter. It is good to honor those in the Armed Forces, and it is more important to take care of their needs everyday.  They do what they do on our behalf, whether we as individuals ‘want’ them to fight or not, and so it is the duty of Americans to provide care when needed.

“Regard your soldiers as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death!”
Sun Tzu

Here are five facts about Veteran’s Health Care.  Number 5 from that list is the following:
5. Nearly one third of returning veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have a mental health condition. Nearly 730,000 of the 2.4 million men and women deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan have returned home with a mental health condition, according to the National Council for Behavioral Health. The same group finds that 30 percent of veterans have their mental health needs met with “evidence-based care.” The rest either do not seek out services or receive care that has not shown to improve outcomes.

The following article outlines areas of veteran care that are not working at their optimum capacity.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-12/veterans-home-from-war-battle-u-s-agency-supposed-to-help-them.html

We need to be better at this.

“Have the courage to act instead of react.”
Earlene Larson Jenks