Swords to Plowshares

Australia’s Veterans’ Affairs Minister, Alan Griffin, expressed concern over the growing number of Australian soldiers returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, today and in the future.

AFP: Australia says veterans may face problems from Iraq, Afghan tours

Griffin said officials were beginning to deal with the relatively new dilemma of mental health issues posed by troops who had served in not only one, but multiple, war zones.

He said one of the problems with psychological illness, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, was that it tended not to present itself immediately but years down the track.

“So we can look at it now and say, ‘There are x number of veterans who are coming back on a regular basis from Afghanistan. We can look at the figures and say, ‘Well, there aren’t that many at the moment that are presenting with problems,” he said.

“But what we can say with some confidence is that over the coming five to 10 years a lot more of those people will have problems.” Read On…