On Dec. 12, 2007, the House Veterans' Affairs Committee (HVAC) held a hearing on military and veteran suicide rates in the wake of a CBS report that veterans are twice as likely to commit suicide as non-veterans, with recent war veterans in their early 20s at even greater risk. Parents of a National Guard soldier told the committee of their son's struggle with PTSD and a seemingly insensitive veterans' system before taking his life on Thanksgiving Day in 2005. A series of mental health professionals, researchers, families, veterans' groups, and legislators urged more open discussion and destigmatization of mental health issues. They urged recognizing PTSD as an injury, as we do visible combat wounds, rather than as a "disease" or "disorder." Troops and their families must have confidence that seeking care for this injury won't hurt their careers.
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