[andyt]

If peer support is working well, then that's great. The worry I would have is that it would become like a lot of women's support groups - "yes your're right, he is a bastard, it's all his fault, and you're the victim." Ie nobody is challenged. Maybe it being presumably all or mostly guys, there would be a lot of challenging going on, but I think it can be helpful to have somebody there outside of the process to keep things on the rails.

There's a comic who asks the men in the audience if their wife is their best friend. Then he says "you liars. If you do something stupid, your best friend will ask you: 'what are you, a retard?' Well, you don't want to be saying that to the wife..."

[SprCForr]

It moves along in progression with peer being but the first. It used to move from there to another person in the organization but not in the same sub unit and from there it was unit padres and the like followed by the medical people. Like any group of young guys it's all BS until it starts being for real, then it gets serious. I don't think that part has changed much. One of the current mob could say for sure.

[Lemmy]

SprCForr SprCForr:

Lemmy, it kills me that your friend couldn't get the help he needed when he needed it.

Thanks. I didn't mean to cast all the blame at the CFs either. Part of the problem, in my friend's case, was that HE didn't know that he needed help either.

[EyeBrock]

Good input on this Lemmy. I'm impressed.

[Lemmy]

EyeBrock EyeBrock:

Good input on this Lemmy. I'm impressed.

Thanks, mate. I wasn't trying to impress anyone, but just to share my experience with PTSD. It's selfish, I guess, but I just want my buddy back.

[Brenda]

Lemmy Lemmy:

EyeBrock EyeBrock:

Good input on this Lemmy. I'm impressed.

Thanks, mate. I wasn't trying to impress anyone, but just to share my experience with PTSD. It's selfish, I guess, but I just want my buddy back.

It's not selfish at all, and I am sure he wants himself back too.
I hope he will...

[Lemmy]

Brenda Brenda:

Lemmy Lemmy:

EyeBrock EyeBrock:

Good input on this Lemmy. I'm impressed.

Thanks, mate. I wasn't trying to impress anyone, but just to share my experience with PTSD. It's selfish, I guess, but I just want my buddy back.

It's not selfish at all, and I am sure he wants himself back too.
I hope he will...

I intended for that to be a PM to Eyebrock, but thank you too, Brenda.

[BartSimpson]

andyt andyt:

If soldiers aren't getting the care that civilians are getting, then that's not right, and should be remedied tout suite. Can't they access the civilian system, same as everybody else?

I won't speak for Canada, but Obamacare will not treat service-related illness or injury, the veterans will still have to go to the VA for care and a lot of ghuys are already saying they KNOW they'll be screwed when the VA denies them care because they say the illness or injury was not service related and then Obamacare will turn them down because the veteran is on record saying the illness or injury IS service related.

Myself, when my knee got shot out and the Navy pukes replaced it with an erector set I got lucky when my personal HMO, Kaiser, decided to cover it and get me a decent knee installed to improve my overall health. The kick in the ass is that with the VA knee I was 40% disabled and after I got done with Kaiser I was cleared to return to duty.

Edit: This is part of why I oppose government health care. At first, if left to the government, my leg would've been amputated above the knee. When I made demands and threatened to expose the clusterf**k that caused my injury then I got shuffled to crap care and got a crap knee. It was my PRIVATE health care that later on fixed my problem for me to improve my overall health - and that was their justification for the coverage. And what did Kaiser charge me (in addition to my regular payments) for this service? US $20.

[EyeBrock]

We don't have anything like a VA system here Bart. There were similar set-ups after WW2 and Korea but they have faded away over time and the need wasn't front and centre during the 'peacekeeping and soft power' era.

I would think this strat re-org that is being undertaken by the DND and the CF will be examining these issues.

I know in the UK there is a growing movement to go back to the comprehensive military health-care system that was destroyed under the Labour governments.
Time will tell on which of the three wankers gets in over there and how they will deal with the thousands of guys dealing with the aftermath of Iraq and Afghanistan.