Falling Through The Cracks

A few weeks ago 60 Minutes had a story that caught my attention. It was about all the military vets that have fallen through the cracks. I was especially interested because the story spoke of a San Diego based veterans program to help those in need. The tragedy of the story was that for every vet they are able to help, there are 50 more that are turned away.

The story told about how quickly newly returning vets become homeless. During the aftermath of the Vietnam War, it took about 8-10 years for vets to become homeless. In the aftermath of Iraq and Afghanistan, vets are becomming homeless in about one year. They did not go into why this is happening so quickly, but the answer seems simple to me. We are not providing the services these men and women need to make sure they become productive members of society again. There is little or no preparation for their release from military life, back to civilian life. Many men and women went into the military right out of college. They may have done several tours and now they're 25 years old and have never been out in the real world and don't know how to cope. They are unprepared.

One man in particular caught my eye. He was around 30 years old, nice looking and well spoken. He was homeless in San Diego. He did not qualify for any military program because he was NOT on drugs or alcohol. All the programs center around helping returnees who are adicted. What about all those that have stayed off drugs? Shouldn't we offer them help? The reality is that they have a better chance of success in civilian life if given a home and few tools.

It reminds me a bit of the prison system, which I have learned much about in the past year. All over the prisons are signs saying, "Preparing inmates for reentry." Ha, what a laugh that is. Teaching someone to till the soil or how to lay tile, that's about the extent of the skills they teach. How about a little psycho therapy to prepare men and women for the real world? Many of these people have been out of society for years, may not have any family to support them, how are they possibly going to make it? What they're doing now is a recipe for failure. It's the same in the military (which I have no firsthand knowledge of). Men and women are sent home, some services are available, but it's all after the fact. Nothing seems to be done to prepare them befoe things get bad.

I'm not an expert in any of these subjects, but these are just things that I have noticed as huge problems that we're just not solving. There are individual programs that are fantastic and are helping the few they serve, but so many are not getting the help they need. We need to do better.