The Obama Administration is changing a fundamental governmental position on what constitutes post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and in so doing, signals a huge sea change in how the government sees its responsibility towards the women and men it sends to war.

Until now, the Department of Veteran Affairs required that to claim PTSD, veterans had to document specific events that might have caused it.  Such documentation has been, at the best, a huge bureaucratic process, and at the worse, made it all but impossible for those whose PTSD resulted from non-combat situations (such as witnessing atrocity) to find help from the VA for their suffering.

The new rule—which applies retroactively for veterans of all wars—allows compensation if a veteran can show that he or she served in a war zone and in a job consistent with the events the vet says caused the trauma.  No longer is coming under fire or witnessing a comrade’s death the only acceptable circumstances.  The new rule also allows compensation for having had good reason to fear traumatic events even if the vet did not ultimately experience such events.

Disability benefits include free physical and mental health care and a monthly stipend.

This change represents not only recognition that PTSD is a fundamental consequence of participating in war—in itself a monumental admission for a government to make.  It speaks that the government sees itself responsible to the people it sends off to war, responsible with deep commitment for the duration of that serviceperson’s life. Human beings with souls that war is all too able to wound,, service men and women will no longer be dispensable.  Government must be responsible for the healing of war’s wounds—without excuses, without short cuts, without budgetary concerns.

While we may or may not believe in the reasons President Obama continues to commit our country to war, he is revolutionizing our relationship to the people we send off in our names.  He is creating a true moral obligation to them, and that deserves our amens.

The Multigenerational Ripple of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)