Imagine you’re in combat and you look over your shoulder and see the enemy shooting at you. Bullets are flying everywhere so you begin to run as fast as you can. Hoping they all miss you. You fought a good fight. Now you’re being discharged no more war, time to live free. Now you get sent back home to New York. You have a family and home everything is perfect but one day it is all gone. You’ve become addicted to alcohol and will do anything to help your addiction. Your family doesn't want to put up with you, you've spent all your money now you have nothing. Hello my name is Alexis-Jade Hester. In today's society everybody's goal is equality, from the LGBTQA community, to black lives matter, women’s rights or even equal pay. What about our veterans? They want equality too. We see them on the streets and look over them. Many people don’t realize how blessed they are to have a job, house, and health care. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates that 39,471 veterans are homeless on any given night (National Coalition for Homeless Veterans). In January 2013 three states California, Florida, and New York accounted for 44% of all homeless veterans across the country (National Coalition for Homeless Veterans). ⅔ of homeless veterans served our country for at least 3 years and ⅓ were stationed in a war zone. Many of them suffer from PTSD causing a lack of socialism. It may be a challenge for veterans to adapt to the current society. Veterans served our country honorably during war time. For veterans day everybody honors our veterans with gifts and food but when the day is over they forget about them. It is our job as a country to help and give back to our veterans.
Many veterans end up on the streets and have substance abuse or Ptsd. Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that can be triggered by a terrifying event- either seeing it or experiencing it. It can be triggered by relieving the situation by sound, nightmares or flashbacks. Most homeless veterans have served in World War II, Korean War, Cold War, Operations of Iraqi Freedom and Enduring freedom, Gulf War, Vietnam war, Grenada, Panama, and Lebanon. PTSD can cause sleeplessness, loss of interest, feelings of numbness, anger or irritability. They did so many good things for our country and now there reward is PTSD. PTSD can be very bad for veterans to do regular day activities. It is best for them to avoid things that will remind them of the event. PTSD can cause veterans to get into substance abuse- drinking or drugs. Veterans with PTSD usually smoke nicotine twice as much as those without it. Drinking and drugs can make ptsd worse than it was. Substance abuse allows them to avoid the PTSD instead of trying to get it under control. Individual meetings or groups such as AA meetings can help control the substance abuse.
For example, Jerry was a veteran in the U.S army fighting in the Vietnam War. During combat Jerry was hiding behind a tree with his best friend. When Jerry caught his breath, he turned to look for his best friend. Once he found him, his best friend showed Jerry his bullet wound. He quickly ran over but it was too late his best friend was gone. Jerry’s heart was broken into pieces but he had to continue on. After the battle Jerry wasn’t doing very well. He couldn’t get over the thought of not being able to help his friend. Jerry continued to serve our country. He was beginning to heal from the death. Time has passed. One day Jerry was running and accidentally stepped on a grenade. Jerry flew in the air and passed out. When he woke up his leg had been amputated. He didn’t know what to do. Jerry went back home to his family so they could take care of him. His family knew something wasn’t right with him; he was always looking over his shoulder. They took Jerry to a hospital because they believed he had PTSD. He was in the hospital for many weeks trying to get back well. On the Fourth of July Jerry wanted to leave from the hospital. The sound of the fireworks made him think of the gunshots. This brought back all of the memories of his friend and the explosion. Take Jerry’s life for example, in the blink of an eye your whole life can be changed. No one wanted to put up with Jerry but you could be the one person to make a difference in others lives like Jerry’s. If Jerry would have had health care he would have been able to take care of himself a bit more.
Health care plays a big part in veterans lives. A person who served in the active military service and who was discharged or released under conditions other than dishonorable is a Veteran(U.S. Department Of Veteran Affairs). There are three different categories that will let you know if you are eligible to get Health care or not: Basic eligibility, Minimum duty requirements, and enhanced eligibility. Basic eligibility requirements state if you were in the service and didn’t get kicked out you are eligible to receive VA health care benefits. Current and former members of the Reserves or National Guard who were called to active duty by a federal order and completed the full period for which they were called or ordered to active duty may be eligible for VA health benefits as well (U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs). There are certain requirements that a veteran has to have in order to get enhanced eligibility. These include veterans who: Are a Former Prisoner of War- a person who, while serving on active duty, was forcibly detained by an enemy government or a hostile force, during a period of war or in situations comparable to war. (U.S. Department Of Veteran Affairs),(U.S. Department Of Veteran Affairs health benefits glossary). In receipt of the Purple Heart Medal-A "Purple Heart" is a medal given by the military to a service person injured as a direct result of combat (U.S. Department Of Veteran Affairs). In receipt of the Medal of Honor. Have a compensable VA awarded service-connected disability of 10% or more (U.S. Department Of Veteran Affairs). In receipt of a VA Pension Were discharged from the military because of a disability (not preexisting), early out, or hardship (U.S. Department Of Veteran Affairs). Served in a Theater of Operations for 5 years post discharge. When a veteran is enrolled, that veteran remains enrolled, in the VA health care system and maintains access to certain VA health benefits. Once your application is successfully processed, you will be assigned an enrollment Priority Group (U.S Department Of Veteran Affairs). There is a chance that veteran can be enrolled into multiple Priority Groups ; the VA will assign the veteran to the best Priority group that they are eligible for. The veteran will then get a handbook stating all of the VA health benefits. With our help as a community we could go and take some of the veterans to get health care so they would no longer have to be homeless or struggle. We can help provide more information to them so they don’t feel as if there Time was waste fighting for us.
Health care Is used to get veterans into HUD VA Programs. HUD VA programs provide rental assistance vouchers for privately owned housing to veterans who are eligible for a VA health care services and are experiencing homelessness. The purpose is to promote the development and provision of supportive housing and or services with the goal of helping homeless veterans achieve residential stability increase their skill levels and/ or income and obtain greater self- determination. (U.S Department of Veterans Affairs). Veterans need to be coordinated effort that provides secure housing, nutritional meals, basic physical health care, substance abuse, aftercare, mental health counseling, personal development, and empowerment. (National Coalition of Homeless Veterans). Veterans need job assessment, training, and placement assistance (National Coalition of Homeless Veterans). Each year VA’s specialized homelessness programs provide healthcare to almost 150,000 homeless veterans and other services to move 112,000 veterans (National Coalition of Homeless Veterans). The number of veterans employed while house and receiving HUD VASH Case Management exceed the national benchmark 4% (National Coalition of Homeless Veterans). VA using its own resources or in partnerships with others has rescued nearly 15,000 residential rehabilitative and grand transitional beds and more than 30,000 permanent beds for homeless veterans throughout the nation ( National Coalition of Homeless veterans). There has been a 17% decrease in homeless veterans between 2015 and 2016.
Why would you give up hope on somebody who didn’t give up on our country. Not just homeless veterans but homeless people as a whole. We need as Americans don’t prioritize them but we should. We could give a donation to a VA program, give blankets anything will make a big difference in their lives. Just the other day I was with my friends and there was a homeless veteran asking for money. My friends told me not to give anything because it could be a scam, but I have anyway. Regardless if we feel if it’s a scam or not by giving a homeless veteran food or water it could make them know they’re not alone.
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