April 08, 2012 - Under the state’s new budget plan, four New York counties — Suffolk, Saratoga, Jefferson, and Rensselaer — are set to receive $200,000 each, to launch a pilot peer support program to help veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury.State Senator Lee Zeldin, a U.S. Army Reserves captain, helped put together a panel to study support initiatives for veterans suffering from PTSD and TBI, and secured funding for the PFC Joseph Dwyer Program.
Dwyer served in Iraq and was pictured in a famous photograph carrying an Iraqi boy that graced the covers of several magazines in 2003. He later suffered from PTSD, and died in June 2008 of an accidental overdose.
“Our brave service men and women may come home, they may look like they’re in one piece, but they return with the mental wounds of war,” he said. And while they reintegrate, Zeldin said, many also feel isolated, which can make the support of fellow service men and women all the more important.
“Hopefully this peer-to-peer program will give these veterans who’ve returned to their civilian life a forum to be with other veterans that know what they’re going through, who understand it, so that everyone can help each other through this unfortunate mental wound that follows them home from combat,” he explained. read more>>>
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