Noteboom The Law Firm

Neighborhood Counseling Centers Added to Aid Veterans

June 4, 2010 - More Veterans than ever are returning home from deployments in need of mental health care. Many of those veterans are not seeking help for their conditions for one reason or another.

Responding to more veterans in need, the Department of Veterans Affairs doubled the amount of neighborhood counseling centers in the greater Dallas-Ft. Worth area. These counseling centers are very limited in nature and scope. Essentially these centers provide "talk therapy" for those veterans of combat. More specifically, the centers help veterans (meaning those not currently in uniform) suffering from:

• Readjustment issues;
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); and
• Family strife.

 The counselors are mostly veterans. The counselors do not analyze any conditions and most certainly do not prescribe medications. Veterans needing medication receive it from a VA medical center. The neighborhood centers are for counseling and serve a very important function to many people: a doorway for those who do not want to undergo a mental health analysis.

Counseling at the center is free of the bureaucratic process and involves filling out one single piece of paper to get started. Approximately 20% of the veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are suffering from some form of PTSD. Many veterans are finding that sitting in a group therapy is much easier and more productive than a more structured counseling setting. This is especially true of younger veterans who don't want to "go for help." Talking to other veterans who "get it" is a much better experience than talking to a traditional therapist one on one for many of the people who attend.