The military lifestyle has taught servicemen and women to be strong in battlefronts and expect the unexpected. Unfortunately, there is no training that teaches them how to handle life after they leave the military. For this reason, many veterans deal with a lot of crises and stress that their civilian family and friends can’t understand, and 95% of the time, these crises are usually due to experiences from their military years.
So, helping these veterans requires a deep understanding of what they are going through. They need to talk to someone who gets it or who has once been in their shoes, and a veteran community is precisely what they need to scale through a crisis.
Below are some of the benefits of community support for veterans in crisis:
- Access To Top-Notch Care
Veteran communities help veterans get the medical care they need by connecting them to the health services based on their unique needs.
- Helps Identify More Veterans In Crisis
Many campaigns and programs have been carried out in the past to create awareness and also identify veterans in crisis. Some of these programs have been effective, while some are not.
Fortunately, veteran communities have been able to identify veterans in crisis with the help of social media. Once they find a veteran in crisis, they immediately appoint another veteran in that area to care for the veteran in crisis.
- Restrict Access To Lethal Equipment
Veterans find it difficult to give up their weapons, and research shows that this is the most common tool veterans use to commit suicide.
So having a supportive community that can be trusted with their weapons will help reduce suicide rates.
Final Note
There are lots of veterans out there that have lost their sense of meaning and can’t figure out their life after the military.
So, if you know a veteran in crisis or you are a veteran in crisis, you can try connecting with other veterans in real life or social media, seek out faith-based communities, reach out to mental health experts at the VA hospital, and also apply for VA benefits available through the Veteran Affairs Department.