Here is a suicide crisis line for veterans, and this one suicidal veteran states he has people in AA he can talk to. AA is not equipped to deal with suicidal, depressed veterans. Lack of real professional help for veterans and depending on 12 step programs is costing lives.
Veterans Crisis Line Seeks To Help Those Struggling With Civilian Life, Unemployment, Post-Combat Stress
Posted: 03/ 8/2012 12:06 pm
CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. — Hi, this is Tricia. Thank you for calling the Veterans Crisis Line. What’s going on tonight?
Tricia, a crisis line operator, is talking with someone we’ll call Steven. Her long black hair frames her face as she bends over her desk, eyes closed, listening and then replying softly.
Steven, will you take a few deep breaths for me, it’s really important that I understand what you are experiencing.
In a few cramped rooms inside a dark red brick veterans mental institution built here in the 1930s, Tricia Lucchesi, along with some two dozen mental health professionals and veterans, fields the calls that come in every minute through the Veterans Crisis Line.
Tricia is 52 and has years of experience in teaching and mental health care; her son is an enlisted airman in the Air Force. Her headset is decorated with blue sparkles. She listens, oblivious to the bustle and ringing phones around her. When she responds she speaks slowly, pouring warmth down the phone line.
What is it Steven, that is making you so desperate that the only way you can think of is to kill yourself?
Seventeen thousand times a month, at all hours of the day and night, the operators answer the callers, listening intently, absorbing the anger and despair, gently shifting them back toward life.
Okay, Steven, I hear that you want to kill yourself tonight and I want to be able to help you not feel that way.
snip
The VA has made huge strides in providing services to the new and Vietnam-era veterans who are demanding medical and mental health help in record numbers. But its facilities, and especially mental health therapists and consultants, are often overwhelmed by the demand.
“Many of the veterans feel very frustrated when the system doesn’t work for them,” said a crisis line responder. “Our VA system is strained, a lot of times there’s not enough staffing. It’s a big job, and often there aren’t enough people to do it.”
Steven, do you have someone you can- … Okay, AA [Alcoholics Anonymous]? Oh, good, you have people in AA. How long have you been sober? Seven years! Good for you! And with everything that’s been going on with you, you haven’t picked up a drink for seven years? … You have a bottle of wine? … Was that today? … Have you been drinking today? … Okay, okay … All right, so you stayed sober for seven years and today you were in so much pain you felt you had to pick up a drink … Okay …. Sure … Sure … I hear you’re in a lot of pain and you want to die right now … We have ways to help you and make your life easier, but you need to work with me on this …
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/08/veterans-crisis-line_n_1322423.html
It appears even the veterans of this country are having their constitutional rights trampled on by the court system as well. Veteran Drug Treatment Courts are mandating Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings.
At one of the meetings with the court team it is said that ‘All have addictions or mental illnesses that were factors in their criminal activity.’ I wonder if they are really getting professional help for the mental illness or addictions
they have.
Here we have in black and white that the mentally ill criminals are mixed in with minors.
Gazette opinion: Court marshals community to rebuild vets’ lives
Posted: Sunday, February 19, 2012
LARRY MAYER/Billings Gazette
Veterans treatment court team members gather with District Judge Mary Jane Knisely on Wednesday.
Twelve people sat around the jury table next door to a sixth-floor courtroom and a few more sat along the wall. Shortly after daybreak Wednesday, the Yellowstone County Impaired Driving Court and Veterans Treatment Court team assessed the past week’s progress and problems for 42 offenders. Most have convictions for drunken or drugged driving. Five are military veterans. All have addictions or mental illnesses that were factors in their criminal activity.
At 9 a.m., the courtroom was nearly full when Knisely called the first name, a veteran making his first court appearance since completing a 90-day jail-based addiction treatment. Now out of jail and living with other veterans at Independence Hall, he is attending regular Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and looking for a job.
“You have 104 days sober today,” Knisely told him, presenting him with coins for 30, 60 and 90 days of sobriety. “Congratulations, we’re happy to see you.”
Everyone in the courtroom applauded.