Sep 27, 2008
Serving Those Who’ve Served
by Jerry Jaker
According to the Veteran’s Administration, the number of veterans living in Minnesota is over 400,000. This includes 18,000 Minnesotans currently in the National Guard and/or Reserves. Recently almost 3,000 Minnesota men and women returned home from 22 months in Iraq.
So, what is it like, coming home? What are the issues and challenges of adjustment returning to a life in Minnesota, similar but changed? And what are the social services intervention and prevention needs our returning war veterans need and so richly deserve?
Those are some of the questions the Minnesota Iraq War Veterans Reintegration Initiative addresses. Chaplain John Morris and his team, with support from the Office of Veterans Affairs, numerous other state and federal agencies and Governor Pawlenty’s Beyond The Yellow Ribbon Task Force are collaborating and working very hard to assist in serving those who’ve served.
I was honored to join a day-long meeting at Camp Ripley and to work with the Task Force, Chaplain Morris and his team, and the leadership in the state to assess needs, develop plans and to martial intervention and prevention services in such a way as to maximize an effective re-integration process of our returning veterans. The Task Force shared ideas and specific recommendations to assist veterans with family and parenting skills, housing, employment, education, mental health, substance abuse prevention and a variety of related needs. The scope is broad. Deployment—getting soldiers ready for war—takes time; so does re-integration upon return.
Major re-integration tasks include:
• overcoming alienation
• moving from simplicity to complexity (from survival to thriving, from following orders to being in charge of decisions, from having limited choices to having many options)
• replacing war with another high—war is many things, including an adventure—little in civilian life matches the intensity
• finding meaning and purpose in life outside of combat (“we were someone before and we will be someone after war, or will we be ‘stuck’ in Iraq forever?”)
Minnesota is the first state in the nation to implement a scheduled 30 and 60 day re-integration experience that includes such components as housing, re-connecting with family and spouse, school dropout prevention, VA services enrollment, mental health services such as anger management, depression, gambling and substance abuse prevention services, and other compulsive behavior issues.
Regardless of how one personally views the war, we all understand that our returning veterans deserve these reintegration services. A helpful approach suggests this message: “Welcome home! Thank you for your service, and how can we help?”
We’d love to hear stories and examples of helpful veterans reintegration services. Let us hear from you.
-Jerry Jaker Ed. S.
Executive Director, MIPH
So, what is it like, coming home? What are the issues and challenges of adjustment returning to a life in Minnesota, similar but changed? And what are the social services intervention and prevention needs our returning war veterans need and so richly deserve?
Those are some of the questions the Minnesota Iraq War Veterans Reintegration Initiative addresses. Chaplain John Morris and his team, with support from the Office of Veterans Affairs, numerous other state and federal agencies and Governor Pawlenty’s Beyond The Yellow Ribbon Task Force are collaborating and working very hard to assist in serving those who’ve served.
I was honored to join a day-long meeting at Camp Ripley and to work with the Task Force, Chaplain Morris and his team, and the leadership in the state to assess needs, develop plans and to martial intervention and prevention services in such a way as to maximize an effective re-integration process of our returning veterans. The Task Force shared ideas and specific recommendations to assist veterans with family and parenting skills, housing, employment, education, mental health, substance abuse prevention and a variety of related needs. The scope is broad. Deployment—getting soldiers ready for war—takes time; so does re-integration upon return.
Major re-integration tasks include:
• overcoming alienation
• moving from simplicity to complexity (from survival to thriving, from following orders to being in charge of decisions, from having limited choices to having many options)
• replacing war with another high—war is many things, including an adventure—little in civilian life matches the intensity
• finding meaning and purpose in life outside of combat (“we were someone before and we will be someone after war, or will we be ‘stuck’ in Iraq forever?”)
Minnesota is the first state in the nation to implement a scheduled 30 and 60 day re-integration experience that includes such components as housing, re-connecting with family and spouse, school dropout prevention, VA services enrollment, mental health services such as anger management, depression, gambling and substance abuse prevention services, and other compulsive behavior issues.
Regardless of how one personally views the war, we all understand that our returning veterans deserve these reintegration services. A helpful approach suggests this message: “Welcome home! Thank you for your service, and how can we help?”
We’d love to hear stories and examples of helpful veterans reintegration services. Let us hear from you.
-Jerry Jaker Ed. S.
Executive Director, MIPH
Posted on September 27, 2008 - 10:11am by Jerry Jaker
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