Mental Injuries For Homeless Veterans

Physical and mental injuries affect a veteran's chance of getting a job drastically. These veterans have serious injuries that they suffered from defending and fighting for our country. Now when they return, they find that their injuries are causing them to be put at a disadvantage in the job market. The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans says that “47,725 veterans are homeless on any given night”. That is around 9% of all homeless people and more than half of that 9% is between 18 and 30(Faq About Homeless Veterans). Many people have this idea that veterans get all the care they need from the V.A, but that is not true for many veterans. These men and women have proudly risked their lives so we can live free and they are coming home to

PTSD is the main mental illness veterans have, PTSD is a horrible illness that is caused by experiencing a traumatic event. People with PTSD will experience flashbacks of the event that are terrifying and commonly causes the person to become angry(Barrera, How PTSD Affects the Veteran, theveteransvoice). If a person with PTSD does not receive necessary treatment than it can cause them to start abusing alcohol or becoming addicted to drugs. This can destroy a veterans whole life and it lowers their chance of getting a job and increases their chance of depression. All of these things severely hurt a veterans chance of ever getting a stable job and staying healthy. A survey showed that less than half of the soldiers with PTSD sought after help mostly out of fear of being stigmatized or hurting their careers.1 in 8 veterans returned home from Iraq/Iran with PTSD, many of those struggled to transition back into civilian life and that made it hard for them to get out there and try to get a job (1 in 8 returning soldiers suffers from PTSD But less than half with problems seek help, report finds, nbcnews). One business owner said “I’ve heard about some veterans coming back and going on rampages” in response to being asked what his concerns were about hiring veterans (Drummond, Veterans Make Valuable Employees). Although this is a valid point more business owners need to think of the positives the veteran can

Veterans make very exceptional employees, veterans have various strengths that put them over normal candidates. The military teaches numerous things such as respect and disciplined, which is a very valuable to have in an employee. Companies are failing to notice that military experience is important and why that makes veterans exceptional employees. Years ago, companies and small businesses would give priority to veterans, now military experience means exceptionally little to employers and they think it is a risk to hire a veteran (Clark,Why Can’t Some Veterans Get Jobs?,