As veterans return to our communities, many carry emotional scars from trauma of combat and deployment. According to a RAND study, an estimated 300,000 veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan reported symptoms of depression or anxiety or received a clinical diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. Yet, according to this report just more than half of those veterans sought treatment.

“Invisible” wounds and injuries such as PTSD, anxiety, and depression create lasting challenges for veterans returning from war. These injuries affect veterans’ abilities to participate in relationships with family, peers, coworkers and the community.

“If untreated, invisible injuries can lead to an onslaught of problems including domestic violence, alcoholism and even suicide. Rates of each run high among vets compared to the civilian population,” states the IAVA, the first and largest nonprofit, nonpartisan veterans-only social network.

On the home front
Texas organizations are working to provide the emotional and mental health services to help heal the invisible injuries among veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sean Hanna of Hope For Heroes, a program of the Samaritan Center, has created an integrated care program to provide comprehensive guidance through emotional trauma. Hanna, a combat veteran himself, describes the challenges of recalibrating reactions and emotions from military to civilian lives.

“When faced with activities or stimuli in routine daily lives, most individuals recognize the stimuli and respond gradually on a scale of 1 to 10. A combatant has been trained to go straight to 10 and immediately react to secure survival. They are also trained to sustain this ‘10’ for days at a time, without sleep, without hesitation.”

While this survival skill is critical during war, it can cause major problems at work, school, home and in social environments. Our returning heroes need the time and tools to transition back home and into their civilian lives and roles, and they need support.

• Learn more about Hope For Heroes programs as well as the organization’s participation in a statewide network of service providers and practitioners helping heal invisible wounds.

VSA Texas is a nonprofit organization that administers to veterans’ emotional wounds through learning and participation in art. Their team serves adults and children with disabilities, allowing these individuals to learn through, participate in and enjoy the arts.

As younger veterans returned from more recent conflicts, Celia Hughes, Executive Director of VSA Texas, saw the opportunity to provide programs to support a younger generation in using art to heal emotional wounds. “Through art, adults, children and veterans can communicate their trauma—draw a picture that they never have to verbalize aloud. Different art mediums provide opportunities for a veteran to turn inside themselves and process trauma or emotion in a safe, creative environment.”

• Learn more about VSA Texas and its programs to support art therapy for veterans throughout the state