Health, counseling centers overwhelmed with services for veterans’ needs

Oct 29 2009 - 12:06am | Clay Thorp

Ben Rondeau/Star photo

As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan enter their sixth and ninth year respectively, the Texas State Counseling Center and Student Health Center are overwhelmed with demand for mental health services.

Under the direction of Gregory Snodgrass, the Counseling Center’s staff of seven psychologists and three counselors has the task of providing mental health services to more than 1,100 veterans on campus.

Snodgrass, licensed psychologist and Vietnam veteran, said he began preparing for an influx of veterans about four years ago.

“We were getting a lot of information from the military that there was a really high incidence of war-zone stress reactions, specifically post-traumatic stress disorder,” he said. “There’s (also) a high incidence of traumatic brain injury, which affects concentration and processing information.”

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Web site, the disorder causes a person to relive traumatic events. Otherwise know as “flashbacks,” sights and sounds such as a car backfiring or loud construction can trigger them. Post-traumatuc stress disorder causes the sufferer to always be on alert, slightly angered, irritable, not able to sleep and easily startled.

Snodgrass said soldiers who were assigned to national guard or reserve units — those who were “not necessarily career military” — currently suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, general anxiety and “some depression.”

Snodgrass said, of the veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008, 89 percent had been ambushed, 77 percent had been fired upon, 86 percent know a soldier injured or killed and 95 percent had seen corpses.

“Many are in a state of constant vigilance or constant threat (from being) in a combat zone for extended periods,” Snodgrass said. “This has a very severe psychological impact and is actually physiological as well.”

Snodgrass said university officials are aware of the Counseling Center’s need for more resources and space.

“We’re overwhelmed with demand for services, (so) if someone needs more help than we can give them, we refer them to the Austin Veterans Center,” he said.

Dr. Emilio Carranco, director of the Health Center, said they  spend 10 percent of all resources on mental health, which include four in-house psychiatrists.

“I think it’s important for us to be ready — and aware (veterans are) bringing a lot of problems with them,” Carranco said. “We need to be preparing to provide for them better.”

Jude Prather, Iraq veteran and ASG veterans’ liaison, said he agrees more needs to be done.

“(Veterans) need an extra safety net to keep them from falling through the cracks,” said Prather, public administration senior. “Going to Veterans’ Affairs isn’t easy.”

Prather said university officials do a good job of making veterans feel welcome, but they could do more to educate college-aged youth on how to deal with veterans and vice-versa.

“I get a lot of random students who say ‘Oh, you were in Iraq huh? Did you get to kill anyone?’ Never, ever ask that, it’s beyond tacky,” Prather said. “No one who was in the s*** wants to relive the worst memory of their entire life.”

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