Experts in the field of military service are sharing their thoughts on a VA program currently underway. Operation Resiliency is a partnership between the Veterans Health Administration Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention and the Independence Fund, a nonprofit that aims to improve veterans' lives.
The program coordinates retreats and other healing activities between members of units that served together in combat.
Travis Martin is Founding Director of Kentucky Center for Veterans Studies at Eastern Kentucky University. In an interview with Eastern Standard, Martin said this type of connection can be important.
“In terms of extremely traumatized veterans, that that first step does tend to be a group of your fellow vets, being able to talk to someone about things that you're not sure how other people are going to take can be really hard, especially combat, death and dying,” said Martin.
Martin added that the next step is also critical. That’s joining and becoming part of the larger community. The veterans’ studies instructor said civilians have their fair share of work to do to help service members achieve that goal.
Martin said civilians can fall into the trap of seeing veterans in one of two ways.
“When veterans get back, they're told they're all heroes, and they kind of get lumped together monolithically. And at the same time, on the other side of that coin, there's this kind of mentality that veterans are victims, that they are all necessarily traumatized by their service,” said Martin.
Martin explained that the classes he teaches at EKU tend to focus on empathy and seeing the veteran as a whole person. Martin advised people to avoid common platitudes such as “thank you for your service” and instead ask veterans questions.
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