CRISIS INTERVENTION FOR IRAQ WAR VETERANS

Crisis Intervention for Iraq War Veterans

Abstract

In this study we try to explore the concept of crisis intervention for veteran a holistic context. The main focus of the research is on Iraq War and its relation with veterans. The research also analyzes many aspects of crisis intervention and tries to gauge its effect on Iraq war veterans. Finally the research describes various factors which are responsible for the crisis intervention and tries to describe the overall effect of crisis on Iraq War Veterans.

Crisis Intervention for Iraq War Veterans

Introduction

Veterans Against Iraq War is a coalition of American veterans who support our troops but oppose war with Iraq or any other nation that does not pose a clear and present danger to our people and nation. (Bennis, 2003)

Until and unless the current U.S. Administration provides evidence which clearly demonstrates that Iraq or any other nation poses a clear, direct and immediate danger to our country, we oppose all of this Administration's pre-emptive and unilateral military activities in Iraq. Furthermore, we cannot support any war that is initiated without a formal Declaration of War by Congress, as our Constitution requires. (Blank, 1994)

Although we detested the dictatorial policies of Saddam Hussein and sympathized with the tragic plight of the Iraqi people, we opposed unilateral and pre-emptive U.S. military intervention on the grounds that it established a dangerous precedent in the conduct of international affairs, that it could easily lead to an increase of violent regional instability and the spread of much wider conflicts, that it places needless and unacceptable financial burdens on the American people, that it diverts us from addressing critical domestic priorities, and that it distracts us from our goals of tracking down and destroying international terrorists and their lairs. (Choy, 1992)

Types of Crisis

Nearly 20 percent of US servicemen back from Iraq and Afghanistan - or a third of a million - suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, but only half of them have sought treatment, according to a study by a US non-profit organisation. Researchers of the RAND Corporation also found that about 19 percent of these veterans reported experiencing a possible traumatic brain injury while deployed, with seven percent reporting both a probable brain injury and current major depression. (Choy, 1992)

Many servicemen said they did not seek treatment for psychological illnesses because they feared it would harm their careers. Even among those who did seek help for severe depression, only about half received treatment that researchers consider “minimally adequate” for their illnesses.

In the first analysis of its kind, researchers estimate that post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression among returning military personnel will cost the US as much as $6.2 billion in the two years following deployment - an amount that includes both direct medical care and costs for lost productivity and suicide.

Investing in more high quality treatment could save close to $2 billion within two years by substantially reducing those indirect costs, the 500-page study concludes. (Blank, 1994)

“There is a major health crisis facing those men ...