[Vision2020] Group Home for PTSD Troops Opposed

[Tom Hansen]

This article extends beyond "inhmane".  People talk about supporting the 
troops.  But, when it comes to walking the walk, some people'e support 
extends no further than the magnet on their car's bumper.

>From the Army Times -

-------------------------------------------------------

http://tinyurl.com/2hb872
Nadia McCaffrey, president of the Patrick McCaffrey Foundation, sits in 
front of a proposed housing site for PTSD-scarred veterans in Guerneville, 
Calif., on March 13. McCaffrey's dream is to house veterans scarred by 
post-traumatic stress disorder there in order to ease their returns from 
combat zones, but area residents have opposed the project.

http://tinyurl.com/2hrlrh
Sonoma County, Calif., ordered work stopped on Nadia McCaffrey's housing 
for veterans with PTSD, saying the project had several code violations. 
McCaffrey says opposition to the project is largely due to residents with 
limited knowledge of PTSD who think of veterans with the condition 
as "deranged."

-----------------

Group home for PTSD troops opposed
By Scott Lindlaw - The Associated Press
   
GUERNEVILLE, Calif. — Merry Lane, a cul-de-sac shaded by redwoods in 
Sonoma County wine country, would seem a pleasant place to recover from 
the psychic wounds of war. Nadia McCaffrey’s dream is to set up a group 
home there for veterans plagued by post-traumatic stress disorder.

But she is running into stiff resistance from the neighbors. They not only 
object to the brand-new structure itself, which looks like a four-story 
apartment house wedged amid their cabins, they are also worried that 
deranged veterans will move in.

At a community meeting in December, “one person was concerned that even 
firecrackers would set these people off,” said Andrew Eckers, 54, who 
lives across the street.

McCaffrey, whose son was killed in Iraq in 2004, said she has tried to 
reassure the neighbors, but “they are afraid of it because they don’t want 
to understand it.”

Projects similar to McCaffrey’s have cropped up in other communities 
across the country, with some also raising concerns from neighbors, in 
part because of the many news accounts of traumatized veterans committing 
suicide or murder.

“We’re all, frankly, failing in properly educating society about what PTSD 
is and what its effects are,” said Jon Soltz, an Iraq war veteran and 
chairman of VoteVets.org, a veterans advocacy group.

McCaffrey wants to set up at least three group homes around the country 
where vets with PTSD could live temporarily, and virtually for free, while 
they study at a college or work at a farm. Donations are paying for the 
projects, she said.

In Guerneville, a community of about 2,500 where the Russian River draws 
tourists in the summer, the light green building nestled into a carved-out 
hillside stands empty.

The county issued a stop-work order because the project exceeded the scope 
of the plans that were filed, said Shems Peterson, Sonoma County 
supervising building inspector. Among other things, the project had 
unauthorized plumbing. Also, a wall meant to divert landslides was deemed 
insufficient.

Neighbors have raised complaints about the cutting down of several 
redwoods to make way for the home, the lack of parking and the size of the 
building, which would house a half-dozen veterans.

“They are inappropriate buildings for the neighborhood. They’re not single-
family residences,” said Mark Mondragon, 41. “This could have been 
Grandmothers for Harmonious Peace, and it wouldn’t have made a difference.”

Jan De Wald, who lives a couple houses down Merry Lane, said too many 
questions remain unanswered about the project, including who sits on the 
board, who is the president and what is the staffing.

Most residents said worries about unhinged veterans are not driving the 
opposition. Eckers emphasized that his primary concern is that the project 
would open the door to more apartment buildings. But he also raised 
questions about the screening and supervision of the veterans.

“Generally PTSD guys are normal people,” Eckers said. But he added: “Some 
are shell-shocked, and they need to be in an institution.”

McCaffrey said screening would be done by veterans and a psychiatrist, and 
supervision would come from volunteers from a nearby veterans clinic.

“We will not accept anyone who’s not completely functional,” she said.

Rogelio Martinez, 26, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan as an Army 
Airborne Ranger, said he was diagnosed with PTSD and sought counseling at 
the urging of his older brother, a military officer. But he said he would 
have benefited from the type of group housing that McCaffrey is proposing.

“If it wasn’t for my brother, I might be one of those homeless vets on the 
street,” Martinez said in a telephone interview from San Antonio. “A place 
like that would be ideal for a person like me or a person in my shoes who 
didn’t have someone to lean on, like an older brother, to get help.”

-------------------------------------------------------

Pro patria, 

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the 
tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime." 

-- Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr. 


---------------------------------------------
This message was sent by First Step Internet.
           http://www.fsr.com/