This morning at Missions Fest Vancouver while manning (or should I say womaning) the Living Room Ministries/Sanctuary exhibition booth, I was approached by a senior military Chaplain with the Canadian Forces. He was an older French Canadian fellow from the Ottawa area and seemed relieved that our type of ministry existed. Ah, since my blog is relatively new, I'm going to take a moment to explain to you what my volunteer work consists of. I facilitate a faith-based (Christian) mental health support group at the Burnaby Campus of Simon Fraser University. It's called MEND which stands for Mental health, encouragement, nurturing and encouragement and meets every second Friday evening. Feel free to email me at mentalhealthsupport@shaw.ca for more information. Anyhow, I'm part of the Living Room mental health group network (http://www.livingroomsupport.org/) but MEND is different in that it's geared towards young adults.
Back to my story... According to this experienced Chaplain, many of the young soldiers coming back from fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan return "healthy". The trouble is that many are wounded emotionally and therefore have gaping invisible wounds. "A lot of the time they seem fine on the surface until that last bit of stress pushes them past their emotional limit. Sometimes it can be something as small as a photo or a bad arguement that makes the hurt soldier shift into a state of panic and psychological turmoil." Honestly on the basis of what I was told by this concerned servant of God, there simply aren't enough support groups for these people who have so bravely served our country. The Chaplains and psychiatric staff working with the Canadian Forces all seem to be overworked by the insane number of cases on their plates. Post traumatic stress disorders, panic disorders and anxiety disorders are plaguing our veterans. I wonder if Prime Minister Harper takes these realities into account when he deploys our troops?
Anyhow, I told the Chaplain to email me. I would be happy to help our young men and women in uniform cope with combat related mood disorders. On Rememberance Day this year we actually devoted our meeting to that particular topic meaning that I was equipped with a working knowledge of what was being explained to me today. I hope that I can assist him in the setup of our support groups at Canadian Forces bases across the country. I'm confident that he'll do an excellent job of it.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, remember to pray for the mental health of our combat veterans!
Back to my story... According to this experienced Chaplain, many of the young soldiers coming back from fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan return "healthy". The trouble is that many are wounded emotionally and therefore have gaping invisible wounds. "A lot of the time they seem fine on the surface until that last bit of stress pushes them past their emotional limit. Sometimes it can be something as small as a photo or a bad arguement that makes the hurt soldier shift into a state of panic and psychological turmoil." Honestly on the basis of what I was told by this concerned servant of God, there simply aren't enough support groups for these people who have so bravely served our country. The Chaplains and psychiatric staff working with the Canadian Forces all seem to be overworked by the insane number of cases on their plates. Post traumatic stress disorders, panic disorders and anxiety disorders are plaguing our veterans. I wonder if Prime Minister Harper takes these realities into account when he deploys our troops?
Anyhow, I told the Chaplain to email me. I would be happy to help our young men and women in uniform cope with combat related mood disorders. On Rememberance Day this year we actually devoted our meeting to that particular topic meaning that I was equipped with a working knowledge of what was being explained to me today. I hope that I can assist him in the setup of our support groups at Canadian Forces bases across the country. I'm confident that he'll do an excellent job of it.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, remember to pray for the mental health of our combat veterans!
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