International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, Inc.
International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, Inc.
By: Rev. Frederick H. Miller, Ph.D.
Chairman Suffolk Co American Legion PTS Committee
It is important to understand that military life is very different from civilian life. In the military you are trained to only trust your buddies, those of higher rank and the Chaplains. Approximately 30% or more of those returning from combat suffer from invisible wounds. The invisible wounds that occur in wars are more deadly than most visible wounds. Those invisible wounds are Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Moral Injury. Unfortunately the victims of these wounds are afraid to seek medical help. Back in 2013 I became active in the American Legion and served as my post’s chaplain. Shortly after becoming chaplain I read a report on the 20 to 22 Veterans that commit suicide every day. The report went on to state that those committing suicide were mostly Veterans from the Vietnam War suffering from PTSD. Further research showed that they were afraid to seek medical help for fear of the stigma of the “D” disorder, would give them a life long label of a mental disorder. As a chaplain I felt the call to try to reach out and help my fellow Veterans. My research led me to the local police and fire departments where after a crisis occurred, fellow police or fireman would sit down with those from the crisis and help them recover. Those that supplied that help were trained by the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation. So I gathered a group of Veterans from my Legion post and had us take training from CISM. The Suffolk County American Legion saw what we were doing and asked if I would serve as chairman of a PTS committee and get Legionnaires from different posts active in the program. To date we have over 100 Legionnaires and Auxiliary trained from 20 different Legion Posts in Suffolk County.
Knowing that the Veterans were afraid of seeking professional help, but trust fellow Veterans and the clergy, we set up group meeting programs in four (4) churches and the State Veterans home under the guidance and approval of the local VA hospital doctors. These meetings were labeled PTS peer to peer meetings. They are led by two (2) to four (4) Legionnaires. The other trained members work the field seeking out the Veterans that need help. When they meet the Veteran and learn what help is needed, they will take them to that help, be it one of our meetings or a VA hospital, or whatever. In this area the Auxiliary is a great help as the family is more willing to seek help then the Veteran. Our hope is to expand the meeting into many other churches. The program as designed by CISM works extremely well with our Veterans in getting them the help they need. Meeting is a safe place, “the church” with ones they trust “fellow Veterans and Clergy” seems to free them into asking for the help they need.
One of the most important facts we discovered is that the Veterans we met with that had ideas of suicide suffered from Moral Injury. Our findings agrees with the reports that the majority of the Veteran suicides are Moral Injury suffering shame, guilt and feel they not longer have the right to live here. Those with PTSD do not have those problems. As a minister I was able to work with and prevent three (3) Veterans from committing suicide and one Veteran’s wife who felt she could no longer live with her suffering husband. Moral Injury is not a medical problem but rather one that the clergy needs to handle.
To help the clergy understand the military and Veterans problems we had the National VA Chaplain Foundation teach over 50 clergy how to help veterans. With the help of Rev. John Fleischmann, who was the CISM instructor for our program, we are developing a training program for handling Moral Injury. I believe that you should also contact Rev. Fleishmann and offer such a program nationally. For more information on this program see our web-page, www.veteranspeertopeerprogram.org.
Copyright © 2025 International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, Inc
International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, Inc is a 501(c)3 Non Profit