Nearly two dozen military veterans kill themselves every day in the United States, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Post-traumatic stress disorder is often to blame.
President Obama has rightly demanded better care for returning vets who suffer from PTSD. He recently invited Wayne Telford — father of U.S. Air Force Sgt. Brooke Caffrey of Grand Junction, who committed suicide in 2012 after her fourth tour of duty — to attend the State of the Union address.
Yet there’s another massive PTSD tragedy in Colorado and across our country. It generates virtually zero public attention because it concerns what may be the most vulnerable group of our citizens: Native Americans and Alaska Natives. Because they’re exposed so frequently to violent crime, an astonishing one in four Native American juveniles currently suffers from PTSD.
