Special Collections
Resources for Returning Veterans
Description: Separating from military service and returning to civilian life can present unique challenges for veterans. This collection contains resources to help veterans and their families making this transition. #general
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Mission Critical
by Michael Abrams and Julia Taylor KennedyThe Center for Talent Innovation's new study, Mission Critical: Unlocking the Value of Veterans in the Workforce, reveals how companies can ensure their veteran talent thrives in the corporate world. Veterans represent a highly desirable talent pool when they transition to civilian careers. They retain the passion for service and camaraderie that drew them into the military, and they bring leadership and technical skills honed in a pressure cooker. In recent years, corporate employers have demonstrated they understand the potential of this valuable cohort by greatly increasing their recruitment efforts. Yet once veterans get through the doors of corporations, they languish. In a matter of months, many ambitious, skilled veterans lose their drive, failing to fulfill their leadership potential—more than half say they don't aspire to hold a more senior position. Many of the remainder feel stalled in their careers.
Why? First, leaders don’t understand their potential. Second, veterans feel distant from their teams and cover their veteran identity in an effort to get closer. Third, they hunger for meaning and purpose at work, something they found in the military but lack in civilian jobs. Mission Critical explores these factors in-depth, especially as they affect women and veterans of color.
Back from War
by Lee Alley and Wade StevensonBack From War: Finding Hope and Understanding in Life After Combat is the harrowing narrative of 1st Lt. Lee Alley and his year in the horrors of combat in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam from 1967-1968 and his reflections on the years since.
Additionally, it is the true accounts of twelve other contributors, their time at war and stories of their return home. All of them discuss feelings of maladjustment, loneliness, depression, bouts of PTSD and negative family repercussions that are similarly felt by many of our nation's veterans of foreign wars.
Lee Alley made a life for himself, but never spoke of his war experiences. Thirty-two years later, he and his "brothers-in-arms" began to reconnect and have recently begun to heal some of their suffering by gathering at veteran reunions. Lee Alley's message is clear: America's soldiers are forever changed, but they are never alone.
Back From War is dedicated to all veterans and their families as a guide for the readjustment to civilian life.
Courage After Fire
by Suzanne Best and Paula Domenici and Keith ArmstrongThe bravery displayed by our soldiers at war is commonly recognized. However, often forgotten is the courage required by veterans when they return home and suddenly face reintegration into their families, workplaces, and communities. Authored by three mental health professionals with many years of experience counseling veterans, Courage After Fire provides strategies and techniques for this challenging journey home. Courage After Fire offers soldiers and their families a comprehensive guide to dealing with the all-too-common repercussions of combat duty, including posttraumatic stress symptoms, anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. It details state-of-the-art treatments for these difficulties and outlines specific ways to improve couple and family relationships. It also offers tips on areas such as rejoining the workforce and reconnecting with children.
Shadows of War
by Efrat Ben-Ze'Ev and Ruth Ginio and Jay WinterSilence lies between forgetting and remembering. This book explores how different societies have constructed silences to enable men and women to survive and make sense of the catastrophic consequences of armed conflict. Using a range of disciplinary approaches, it examines the silences that have followed violence in twentieth-century Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. These essays show that silence is a powerful language of remembrance and commemoration and a cultural practice with its own rules. This broad-ranging book discloses the universality of silence in the ways we think about war through examples ranging from the Spanish Civil War and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the Armenian Genocide and South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Bringing together scholarship on varied practices in different cultures, this book breaks new ground in the vast literature on memory, and opens up new avenues of reflection and research on the lingering aftermath of war.
The Body Keeps the Score
by Bessel van der KolkTrauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world's foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors.
In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers' capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments--from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga--that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain's natural neuroplasticity.
Based on Dr. van der Kolk's own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal--and offers new hope for reclaiming lives.
A New York Times Bestseller
Invisible Wounds of War
by Marguerite Guzman BouvardThere’s no real homecoming for many of our veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They may go through the motions of daily life in their hometowns, but the terrible sights and sounds of war are still fresh in their minds.
This empathic, inside look into the lives of our combat veterans reveals the lingering impact that the longest wars in our nation’s history continue to have on far too many of our finest young people. Basing her account on numerous interviews with veterans and their families, the author examines the factors that have made these recent conflicts especially trying.
A major focus of the book is the extreme duress that is a daily part of a soldier’s life in combat zones with no clear frontlines or perimeters. Having to cope with unrecognizable enemies in the midst of civilian populations and attacks from hidden weapons like improvised explosive devices exacts a heavy toll. Compounding the problem is the all-volunteer nature of our armed forces, which often demands multiple deployments of enlistees. This results in frequent cases of post-traumatic stress disorder and families disrupted by the long absence of one and sometimes both parents.
The author also discusses the lack of connectedness between civilian society and military personnel, leading to inadequate healthcare for many veterans. This deficiency has been highlighted by the urgent need to treat traumatic brain injuries in survivors of explosions and the high veteran suicide rate.
Bouvard concludes on a positive note by discussing some of the surprising and encouraging ways that the chasm between civilian and military life is being bridged to help reintegrate our returning soldiers. For veterans, their families, and especially for civilians unaware of how much our soldiers have endured, The Invisible Wounds of War is important reading.
Soul Repair
by Rita Nakashima Brock and Gabriella LettiniThe first book to explore the idea and effect of moral injury on veterans, their families, and their communities.
Although veterans make up only 7 percent of the U.S. population, they account for an alarming 20 percent of all suicides. And though treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder has undoubtedly alleviated suffering and allowed many service members returning from combat to transition to civilian life, the suicide rate for veterans under thirty has been increasing.
Research by Veterans Administration health professionals and veterans' own experiences now suggest an ancient but unaddressed wound of war may be a factor: moral injury. This deep-seated sense of transgression includes feelings of shame, grief, meaninglessness, and remorse from having violated core moral beliefs.
Rita Nakashima Brock and Gabriella Lettini, who both grew up in families deeply affected by war, have been working closely with vets on what moral injury looks like, how vets cope with it, and what can be done to heal the damage inflicted on soldiers' consciences.
In Soul Repair, the authors tell the stories of four veterans of wars from Vietnam to our current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan--Camillo "Mac" Bica, Herman Keizer Jr., Pamela Lightsey, and Camilo Mejía--who reveal their experiences of moral injury from war and how they have learned to live with it. Brock and Lettini also explore its effect on families and communities, and the community processes that have gradually helped soldiers with their moral injuries.
Soul Repair will help veterans, their families, members of their communities, and clergy understand the impact of war on the consciences of healthy people, support the recovery of moral conscience in society, and restore veterans to civilian life. When a society sends people off to war, it must accept responsibility for returning them home to peace.
Invisible Wounds of War
by Terri Tanielian and Lisa H. Jaycox and Grant N. Marshall and M. Audrey Burnam and Terry L. SchellSummarizes key findings and recommendations from Invisible Wounds of War: Psychological and Cognitive Injuries, Their Consequences, and Services to Assist Recovery (Tanielian and Jaycox [Eds.], MG-720-CCF, 2008), a comprehensive study of the post-deployment health-related needs associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression, and traumatic brain injury among veterans of Operations Enduring Freedom/Iraqi Freedom.
Down Range
by Bridget C. Cantrell and Chuck DeanAs soldiers, we have spent countless years learning to survive the actual battle. Endless days on the firing range; countless hours in battle drills; months in combat learning the "ropes"; physical fitness training every day...all of these were dedicated to ensuring your survival and victory at the moment of truth. Now, it is time to dedicate some time to surviving when it is over.
PTSD is sometimes called "The gift that keeps on giving." If you die, that is not contagious--but if you live, and come out of the experience with a load of mental baggage, then your loved ones will most likely share in your struggles as well.
Reading this book ahead of time can be a form of inoculation, giving you insight that will help keep your combat reactions in perspective, and help you understand what is happening to your mind and body after wartime experiences. Just as we can equip ourselves to physically survive combat, we can also prepare to mentally survive the aftermath. This book is yet another tool in that equipping process.
The Strategic Student Veteran
by David CassThe college graduation rate for military veterans is unsatisfactory. While the life transition for veterans goes far beyond academics, by lessening the stress of the academic transition, the likelihood of collegiate success is significantly increased.
The goal of The Strategic Student Veteran is to help raise graduation rates amongst our nation's veterans. The reason so many college students under-perform is because they're not taught how to transition from the structured military environment to the unstructured college academic environment. The Strategic Student Veteran teaches college-bound military veterans how to make this transition and become self-reliant, successful students.
Flashback
by Penny ColemanWith the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, once again America's men and women who have seen war close-up are suddenly expected to return seamlessly to civilian life. In Flashback, Penny Coleman tells the cautionary and timely story of posttraumatic stress disorder in the hope that we can sensitively assist those veterans who return from combat in need of help, and the families struggling to support them.
Among the Walking Wounded
by Colonel John ConradA gripping account of PTSD, and a stark reminder that, for many, wars go on long after the last shot is fired.
In the shadows of army life is a world where friends become monsters, where kindness twists into assault, and where self-loathing and despair become constant companions. Whether you know it by old names like “soldier’s heart,” “shell shock,” or “combat fatigue,” post-traumatic stress disorder has left deep and silent wounds throughout history in the ranks of fighting forces.
Among the Walking Wounded tells one veteran’s experience of PTSD through an intimate personal account, as visceral as it is blunt. In a courageous story of descent and triumph, it tackles the stigma of PTSD head-on and brings an enduring message of struggle and hope for wounded Canadian veterans. This book is a must-read for anyone who cares about Canadian veterans and the dark war they face long after their combat service is ended.
Waiting for First Light
by Romeo DallaireAt the heart of Waiting for First Light is a no-holds-barred self-portrait of a top political and military figure whose nights are invaded by despair, but who at first light faces the day with the renewed desire to make a difference in the world.
Roméo Dallaire, traumatized by witnessing genocide on an imponderable scale in Rwanda, reflects in these pages on the nature of PTSD and the impact of that deep wound on his life since 1994, and on how he motivates himself and others to humanitarian work despite his constant struggle. Though he had been a leader in peace and in war at all levels up to deputy commander of the Canadian Army, his PTSD led to his medical dismissal from the Canadian Forces in April 2000, a blow that almost killed him. But he crawled out of the hole he fell into after he had to take off the uniform, and he has been inspiring people to give their all to multiple missions ever since, from ending genocide to eradicating the use of child soldiers to revolutionizing officer training so that our soldiers can better deal with the muddy reality of modern conflict zones and to revolutionizing our thinking about the changing nature of conflict itself.
His new book is as compelling and original an account of suffering and endurance as Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking and William Styron's Darkness Visible.
Adjustment to Severe Physical Disability
by Charlene Deloach and Bobby G. GreerAdjustment to Severe Physical Disability: A Metamorphosis, then, is designed for professionals-in-training, practicing professionals, and parents or families of disabled persons.
The book deals with (1) the societal misconceptions that impede the physical, psychological, and social adjustment of disabled persons; (2) the effects these misconceptions have on the attitudes and effectiveness of those who work with disabled persons; and (3) existing services, laws, environmental changes, and technological advances that affect both the efforts of professionals and the lives of disabled persons. In keeping with the goals of this book, the content ranges from hard science to advocacy, from objective data to personal experiences. Case illustrations are designed to stimulate discussion and self-exploration, as well as to illuminate the factual basis for author opinions with no printed sources. Ideally, these illustrations will serve a heuristic function, leading students to conduct needed research into the psychosocial aspects of disability.
The Invisible Front
by Yochi DreazenThe unforgettable story of a military family that lost two sons—one to suicide and one in combat—and channeled their grief into fighting the armed forces’ suicide epidemic.
Major General Mark Graham was a decorated two-star officer whose integrity and patriotism inspired his sons, Jeff and Kevin, to pursue military careers of their own. His wife Carol was a teacher who held the family together while Mark's career took them to bases around the world. When Kevin and Jeff die within nine months of each other—Kevin commits suicide and Jeff is killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq—Mark and Carol are astonished by the drastically different responses their sons’ deaths receive from the Army. While Jeff is lauded as a hero, Kevin’s death is met with silence, evidence of the terrible stigma that surrounds suicide and mental illness in the military. Convinced that their sons died fighting different battles, Mark and Carol commit themselves to transforming the institution that is the cornerstone of their lives.
The Invisible Front is the story of how one family tries to set aside their grief and find purpose in almost unimaginable loss. The Grahams work to change how the Army treats those with PTSD and to erase the stigma that prevents suicidal troops from getting the help they need before making the darkest of choices. Their fight offers a window into the military’s institutional shortcomings and its resistance to change – failures that have allowed more than 2,000 troops to take their own lives since 2001. Yochi Dreazen, an award-winning journalist who has covered the military since 2003, has been granted remarkable access to the Graham family and tells their story in the full context of two of America’s longest wars. Dreazen places Mark and Carol’s personal journey, which begins when they fall in love in college and continues through the end of Mark's thirty-four year career in the Army, against the backdrop of the military’s ongoing suicide spike, which shows no signs of slowing. With great sympathy and profound insight, The Invisible Front details America's problematic treatment of the troops who return from war far different than when they'd left and uses the Graham family’s work as a new way of understanding the human cost of war and its lingering effects off the battlefield.
Down Range
by James D. Murphy and William M. DukeWritten by veterans who have successfully made the transition, Down Range offers career planning guidance to U.S. military veterans coming off active duty. This is NOT simply a guide to transitioning from the military to the civilian world. This is NOT a guide to getting a job. This book IS a guide to developing a post-military career, not just for the first few days, weeks, or months after active duty, but for the rest of your employed life.
This simple and effective planning process has been taught to more than 1 million business executives in companies all over the world.
This book challenges veterans to change their mind-set and understand just how different the "wilderness" of civilian employment is from military experience. Down Range provides an appreciation for what's important to a business, helping you to become a valuable asset throughout your career.
The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Relationship
by Diane EnglandWar, physical and sexual abuse, and natural disasters. All crises have one thing in common: Victims often suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and their loved ones suffer right along with them. In this book, couples will learn how to have a healthy relationship, in spite of a stressful and debilitating disorder. They'll learn how to: —Deal with emotions regarding their partner's PTSD —Talk about the traumatic event(s) —Communicate about the effects of PTSD to their children —Handle sexual relations when a PTSD partner has suffered a traumatic sexual event —Help their partner cope with everyday life issuesWhen someone has gone through a traumatic event in his or her life, he or she needs a partner more than ever. This is the complete guide to keeping the relationship strong and helping both partners recover in happy, healthy ways.
Military-to-Civilian Career Transition Guide
by Janet I. FarleyThis handbook provides a career transition framework for service members and their families. Readers are given exit strategies for gracefully leaving the military; charts, checklists, and worksheets for planning each transition aspect; resume and cover letter samples and strategies; and interviewing and salary negotiation tips.
After the War Zone
by Matthew J. Friedman and Laurie B. SloneTwo experts from the VA National Center for PTSD provide an essential resource for service members, their spouses, families, and communities, sharing what troops really experience during deployment and back home. Pinpointing the most common after-effects of war and offering strategies for troop reintegration to daily life, Drs. Friedman and Slone cover the myths and realities of homecoming; reconnecting with spouse and family; anger and adrenaline; guilt and moral dilemmas; and PTSD and other mental-health concerns. With a wealth of community and government resources, tips, and suggestions, After the War Zone is a practical guide to helping troops and their families prevent war zone stresses from having a lasting negative impact.
The Job Developer's Handbook
by Cary Griffin and David Hammis and Tammara GearyOne of the most practical employment books available, this forward-thinking guide walks employment specialists step by step through customized job development for people with disabilities, revealing the best ways to build a satisfying, meaningful job around a person's preferences, skills, and goals. Internationally known for their innovative, proactive job development strategies, the authors motivate readers to expand the way they think about employment opportunities and develop creative solutions.
Readers will get fresh, proven tips and ideas for every aspect of job development for youth and adults with significant support needs:
To make each part of job development easier, the book arms readers with practical content they can really use: easy-to-follow, step-by-step guidelines; checklists of critical questions to answer; success stories in both urban and rural settings; and sample scenarios, dialogues, and interview questions.
Equally useful to veteran professionals and those just starting out, this compelling guidebook breathes new life into the job development process and helps readers imagine a wider world of employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
The Wounds Within
by Joshua S. Goldstein and Mark I. NickersonAs America’s longest wars end, hundreds of thousands of veterans and their families struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The Wounds Within follows the case of Marine Lance Corporal Jeff Lucey, who deployed early in the Iraq War, battled PTSD after returning home, and set his family on a decade-long campaign to reform the Veterans Affairs system and end the stigma around military-related mental health issues, with the perspective of Jeff’s psychotherapist, Mark Nickerson, an internationally recognized expert on trauma treatment.
Recounting one family’s story as well as case histories of Nickerson’s veteran clients, the book explains PTSD and the methods by which it can be treated. It also explores the challenges and frustrations facing returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan—from belated reforms to overwhelmed military families to civilians who don’t know what to say beyond “Thank you for your service.”
The Way of the Wound
by Robert GrantCountless victims of childhood abuse, domestic violence, violent crime, rape, war, life-threatening illness and natural disaster struggle with the impact of their injuries. Former ways of making sense have been injured or destroyed. The lives of many are without meaning or direct. Unless helped to integrate the significance of their traumatic wounds into more comprehensive approaches to self, life and God victims run the risk of addiction, wasted potential, numerous psychological and physical problems, as well as commitments to distorted spiritualities. Victims of trauma are asked to embark on a path of healing that mystics, shamans and mythic heroes have been walking for thousands of years. The only difference is that the path is contemporary and, therefore, potentially more conscious. Trauma provides a modern access to this spiritual path and can initiate powerful experiences of conversion. If properly supported and accompanied trauma has the power to transform all facets of reality.
The Way of the Wound lays out a path of healing, along with the central issues that survivors encounter at every crucial point along the way. This work offers direction to every victim of trauma wanting to move to the next level of healing.
Making Self-Employment Work for People with Disabilities (Second Edition)
by Cary Griffin and David Hammis and Beth Keeton and Molly SullivanAs self-employment becomes a viable option for more and more adults with significant disabilities, give them realistic, practical guidance and support with the NEW edition of this popular guidebook. Updated with a new and improved assessment approach, more self-employment success stories, and the latest on policy changes and online opportunities, this book is your step-by-step guide to helping adults with disabilities get a small business off to a strong start. You'll discover the nuts and bolts of person-centered business planning, and you'll get concrete, step-by-step strategies for every aspect, from business plans to marketing to finances. A must-have resource for employment specialists, transition professionals, and individuals with disabilities and their families, this book is the go-to guide for turning a small business into a big success.
SUPPORT PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES AS THEY:
War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning
by Chris HedgesAs a veteran war correspondent, Chris Hedges has survived ambushes in Central America, imprisonment in Sudan, and a beating by Saudi military police. He has seen children murdered for sport in Gaza and petty thugs elevated into war heroes in the Balkans. Hedges, who is also a former divinity student, has seen war at its worst and knows too well that to those who pass through it, war can be exhilarating and even addictive: “It gives us purpose, meaning, a reason for living.”
Drawing on his own experience and on the literature of combat from Homer to Michael Herr, Hedges shows how war seduces not just those on the front lines but entire societies—corrupting politics, destroying culture, and perverting basic human desires. Mixing hard-nosed realism with profound moral and philosophical insight, War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning is a work of terrible power and redemptive clarity whose truths have never been more necessary.
Trauma and Recovery
by Judith Lewis HermanWhen Trauma and Recovery was first published in 1992, it was hailed as a groundbreaking work. In the intervening years, Herman's volume has changed the way we think about and treat traumatic events and trauma victims. In a new afterword, Herman chronicles the incredible response the book has elicited and explains how the issues surrounding the topic have shifted within the clinical community and the culture at large.
Trauma and Recovery brings a new level of understanding to a set of problems usually considered individually. Herman draws on her own cutting-edge research in domestic violence as well as on the vast literature of combat veterans and victims of political terror, to show the parallels between private terrors such as rape and public traumas such as terrorism.
The book puts individual experience in a broader political frame, arguing that psychological trauma can be understood only in a social context. Meticulously documented and frequently using the victims' own words as well as those from classic literary works and prison diaries, Trauma and Recovery is a powerful work that will continue to profoundly impact our thinking.