PTSD Awareness Month and the Fourth of July ceremonies come but once a year but I feel we need to take more direct action daily to help our veterans and their families at the grass-roots, community level -- long, long before they are pushed to the wall by the impact of repeated deployments.

One strong  recommendation would be a major and collective effort to established a nationwide and well publicized network of face to face, peer to peer support groups to supplement existing medically oriented agency programs.

How about having weekly such meetings at the 2,600 YMCA facilities across the nation?

A strong and interlinked United Way network of web sites carrying current info on both local veterans activities at the county level along with up to date 

listings of veterans services actually existing locally?

According to public reports, we actually have thousands of veterans entities raising huge amounts of money for purported veterans assistance projects.  Yet as seen in the below article; time and lives are passing us by without ACTION to help individuals right amongst us long before their concerns reach a clinical level.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/06/us/politics/wars-elite-tough-guys-hesitant-to-seek-healing.html?hp&_r=1

Steve “K” Kubiszewski

USA (Ret), combat veteran and WA State Veterans Advocate

Retired: LMHC, MAC/CDP, NCC, CTS, CEAP

http://www.ptsdanonymous.org/about

E: ptsda@comcast.net

FB and LInkedin.com

“PTSD isn't about what's wrong with you!   It's about what happened to you!”