Grant to Help Vermont Veterans Readjust to Life Back Home

Grant to help Vermont veterans readjust to life back home

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) - The Vermont office of the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department is getting an extra $1 million to continue building a network that helps service members and their families adjust to life after being deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

The money is contained in the Defense Department budget, which has passed the U.S. House and is likely to pass the Senate, said Vermont independent Rep. Bernard Sanders, who introduced the legislation that led to the appropriation.

"The problem of post-traumatic stress disorder, and of difficulties in adjusting back to civilian life, is very, very real," Sanders said Monday during a Burlington news conference. "Social support is the number one predicator of successful readjustment, which means that working with families and communities is extremely important."

Post traumatic stress issues are thought to be greater for National Guard members, many of whom never expected to be sent into sustained combat and who lack the support available to active duty personnel.

The VA is working with churches, schools and state agencies to make people are aware of the difficulties facing returning veterans.

More than 1,000 Vermont Army and Air National Guard members have served in combat situations in Iraq and Afghanistan and 600 more spent a year in Kuwait, where the danger was less, but they were still away from homes for more almost a year.

The programs were established by the Vermont National Guard and the VA and were helped by earlier grants in 2003 and 2005. The veterans program has been so effective the Vermont Legislature appropriated $250,000 to help pay for it.

http://bernie.house.gov/documents/document.asp?issueNum=4977