Denise Berry remembers the day a mortar blew up part of the hospital in Iraq where she was working as a U.S. Army combat medic. The explosion claimed a person in a portable toilet next to her, blew up her
“I am lucky to be alive,” Berry said. She woke up a while later, unsure how long she’d been unconscious. Berry suffered memory loss related to traumatic brain injury, and later, symptoms of PTSD.
After demobilizing and leaving the service, Berry waited. Despite worsening mental health effects from the bombing and her time working in the high-stress environments of emergency rooms and prisons in Iraq, she hesitated to reach out.
“The resources didn’t come to you. So if you weren’t a very proactive person, you weren’t going to get any help,” she said. “And I would have to say that’s for most veterans coming back.”
The same thing that made her successful on deployment — the strength to keep it together and handle any obstacle that came her way — motivated Berry try to tough out the disturbing dreams and anxiety alone. She also wondered why her difficulties deserved attention ahead of scores of wounded servicemembers. Berry remembered thinking, “how could I possibly receive benefits when this person over here is dealing with the ramifications of Agent Orange, or lost a leg?”
Opening up combat jobs to women in the military is bringing a greater need for resources to treat the trauma and mental health challenges that echo after service. But the National Institutes of Health has found women veterans underutilize VA health care compared with men. It says many report delaying getting care, and that when they do receive treatment, it’s inadequate. Other women aren’t seeking help at all, according to the government researchers.
Experts say there are many possible reasons women don’t avail themselves of veteran-specific resources. They may not think of themselves as part of a veteran community that’s dominated by men. Parenthood duties often fall to women and make it difficult to find time to reach out or travel for care. And many women have experienced sexual assault or harassment while serving, an experience that alienates them from military institutions that may have protected their assailants.
A group of nonprofits is testing a new outreach program in Los Angeles County, dubbed Women Vets on Point, which aims to specifically serve women veterans’ needs by overcoming barriers to care, and connect veterans with a range of services in their community, including mental healthcare, substance abuse treatment, childcare, professional development and educational resources. U.S.VETS and Education Development Center (EDC), a nonprofit research organization, are partnering to develop and test Women Vets on Point.
One of the Women Vets on Point services is a U.S.VETS program called Outside the Wire, in which Snetter works with student veterans providing counseling and mental health services on college campuses in Orange County.
The biggest outreach tool will be a new website, ideally a one-stop-shop for female veterans to find resources. “To educate, to connect people, to help people choose what they want to do next in their own time, when they’re ready,” said Rebecca Stoeckle with EDC.
EDC’s research has shown peer-to-peer encouragement is an important motivator for female veterans seeking help, so they’re tapping interviews and focus groups to develop a site women will feel comfortable sharing with their social network.
With these goals in mind, Stoeckle said the biggest challenge is to restore trust in the help that’s available. Some women veterans feel the system has let them down. They weren’t taken seriously when they suffered mental health difficulties, or the effects of military sexual harassment and assault.
Read more about the pilot program at SCPR.org.
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