Minnesota has a problem with
homeless veterans, and we’re not dealing with it very well.
Seven hundred Minnesota veterans, with an average age of 42.6 years,
are homeless, according to the 2003 research study by the Saint Paul
Wilder Foundation. Approximately half of this population lives with
mental illness and/or physical disabilities. We can only wonder how
many of these people suffer from the physical or psychological effects
of chemical weapons. They put their lives on the line for us, and
now some of them are homeless. Any veterans from Vietnam to the current
Gulf War should not have to sleep in doorways, shelters, or live
in transitional housing.
I know something about
veterans. My dad, a World War II veteran, died of cancer twenty
years after he was severely wounded. As a little boy of nine years
old, I remembered my dad suffering through two years of 1960’s era cancer treatment, which added to his long-term
agonized path to death. What he went through affected his six children,
spouse, brothers and sisters, not to mention his mother. My brother
is also a veteran of the Vietnam War; he doesn’t like to talk
to me about war. Two of my nephews and one great nephew may well
be thrust into the Gulf War.
Let’s remember, a veteran who is disabled and homeless did
not enter the military as a person homeless and disabled. Healthy
civilians who were accepted into the military don’t always
come back home from battle with the same good health. How many
returning veterans become homeless because of their physical or
mental disabilities? It is up to our government to care for these
heroic people, especially if they’re injured on the field
of battle.
Is it any wonder that
many civilians or military personnel anguish over the current population
of veterans, disabled and homeless, who continue to suffer from
the effects of wartime exposure to chemical weapons. According
to Doctor Jeffery L. Arnold, “In general,
volatile liquids pose the dual risk of dermal and inhalation exposure,
while persistent liquids are more likely to be absorbed across the
skin. The effects of vapors largely are influenced by ambient wind
conditions; even a slight breeze can blow nerve agent vapor away
from its intended target. Effects of vapor are enhanced markedly
when deployed within an enclosed space.”
Numerous reports show that pesticide vapors or other chemical weapons
like sarin gas, depleted uranium or any other lethal agent(s) will
cause abnormalities in the human body. It may be for this reason
that approximately fifty percent of the veterans who are homeless
suffer from forms of mental illness as well as from physical disabilities.
The 2003 Wilder survey cited that fifty percent of homeless veterans
have a chronic medical condition: high blood pressure, asthma, tuberculosis
and other chronic lung or respiratory problems, diabetes, hepatitis,
and/or HIV/AIDS. Besides the physical disabilities, many of these
veterans struggle with mental health concerns.
Mental illness is a significant problem for nearly half (49%) of
the veterans who are homeless in the survey. Forty-five percent
of veterans who are homeless have been told by a doctor or nurse
(within the previous two years) that they have schizophrenia, manic-depression,
some other type of delusional disorder, major depression, anti-social
personality disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder. Thirty-three
percent of veterans homeless in this survey have received outpatient
mental health services and 30 percent have lived in a facility
for persons with mental health problems within the preceding two
years.” By comparison, community surveys of the general population,
done by the US Department of Health and Human Services, show that
at any given time, approximately 20 percent of U.S. adults are
experiencing some form of mental illness, including 5.4 percent
experiencing a severe mental illness.” And the figures cited
above are taken from a survey of known cases of veterans disabled
and homeless. What about the veterans disabled who live in isolated
rural areas? How will they participate in such a survey, much less
receive services?
Finally, I wonder how
young soldiers, many 19 to 25 years of age, will transition back
into society after they’ve suffered from
the effects of improvised explosive devices, suicide bombers, or
insurgent attacks on their vehicles. How will any of these soldiers,
blinded, paralyzed or amputized, live a normal life? It’s a
shame for these young soldiers to be rendered homeless. The community
has got to reach out to these folks. Society has a responsibility
to them, just as they took responsibility when placing themselves
in harm’s way for us. One veteran homeless is one too many.
To allow any of our service personnel to remain homeless and/or
to not provide them with lifelong care from any affliction they acquire
on the battlefield is inhumane. Soldiers who lived through exposure
to carcinogens from exploded chemical weapons will carry visible
and invisible scars for an undetermined length of time. The long-term
effects of damage to the human body need to be evaluated by independent
nongovernmental medical agencies, who can make recommendations not
swayed by political repercussions.
Government elected officials should appropriate finances for veterans
disabled in war to provide them with an accessible house, a livable
monthly income, free lifelong education, free lifelong rehabilitation
with no cost to adaptive computer technologies and instruction, and
free lifelong medical care and treatment. Perhaps the U.S. Congress
could mandate million and billion dollar corporations-especially
defense contractors to set aside a trust fund for veterans disabled.
It is a truly honorable thing for soldiers to give their lives for
freedom as they enter into battle. But it is immoral that any soldier
returned home from a war, who became disabled with either a physical
or mental disability, be homeless for any length of time. Think about
it.
What Can You Do?
To support
disabled veterans, contact the Veterans Administration, or get
involved with your church groups to either develop or expand services
to homeless people. Contact the Wilder Foundation with the name(s)
of disabled homeless veterans for the next survey due to be published
in October, 2006.
Sources include:
• Wilder Research Center
• Dr. Jeffery L. Arnold, Last Updated—October 25, 2004,
CBRNE—Chemical Warfare Agents: EMedicine Specialties, Emergency
Medicine, Warfare—Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear
And Explosives.
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. (1989). Mental Health: A report
of the Surgeon General—Executive summary. Rockville, Md).
