News From the Cause

February 17, 2010

Talk to her, and you will hear details of a Veterans Affairs health-care system astonishingly out of touch with the grim experiences many of today's troops face - and then have to deal with at home. She describes the perky little pamphlet she received from a VA therapist with the advice to "Get a butterfly tattoo!" and "Drive with the windows open!" as ways to lift her spirits while she struggled with emotional trauma. As for her therapy, "I've been in all-male groups with vets who were shoplifters, sexual assaulters, wife-beaters," she says. When she requested a group with other women vets, she was reassigned, but "none of them had been in combat, and they asked that I not tell my stories. They were too disturbing." click here to view

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