I was privileged to get to go to the Roxie Theater in San Francisco yesterday and see the world premiere and kickoff of the national tour for "Broken Promise," part of the "In Their Boots" documentary film series that focuses on veterans issues.
The Northern California location was appropriate, because the "Broken Promise" segment focuses on the Pathway Home, at the California Veterans Home in Yountville, and follows the lives of three Iraq War veterans who are residents there, part of an innovative treatment program for PTSD, run by longtime veterans advocate, Fred Gusman, M.S.W.
The documentary is interesting -- I'm still mulling over what I think about it -- and it was neat both having gone to the Pathway Home before to visit with some of the residents, and then seeing some of them there at the screening (including one whose story was featured in the film). However, the best part of the movie for me was this particular quote of Gusman's, which drives home the importance of both seeing -- and treating -- vets with PTSD in community.
Said Gusman,
"For every one person that's affected (by PTSD), there's generally 50 others attached to them, when you start looking at family members, employers, educational systems -- all the different folks who are affected by just one warrior."
While Gusman (in the film) goes on to make the argument for including vets' families in the treatment of the vets, the point here is a separate one. That a single vet who's suffering -- or for that matter, overcoming -- is not a single vet. He or she is the center of a number of concentric circles of effect that ripple outwards, affecting many others. All the more reason to not neglect, or ignore, or put aside the struggles of veterans with PTSD. Each one has 50 people he or she is affecting -- by his or her failures, and, over time, by his or her successes as well. They're not just individual struggles: they're the center of a social web in which many others play a part, either directly or indirectly (by compassion and concern, for example, or neglect and indifference).
Editor's note: For more on the "In Their Boots" documentary film series, click here. For more on Fred Gusman, M.S.W., click here. For more on his work as Executive Director of the Pathway Home, click here. For more on the Pathway Home residential treatment center for combat veterans with PTSD, click here.
