FARGO, ND – Along with the large increase in US active combat forces deployed over the past decade has come a correlating increase in reports of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance abuse among returning service personnel and veterans.
On Thursday and Friday this past week, ND Representative Bette Grande, R-Fargo, facilitated discussions at a national conference focusing on women veteran combat trauma and addiction this past week in Las Vegas.
The conference was aimed bringing together legislators and health and military professionals to work on understanding and designing solutions to problems female veterans face.
“Now more than ever we see women in military roles that were once thought unimaginable and unattainable,” stated Grande. “Our women veterans span generations and all branches of the military including the National Guard and Reserve components. I’m really honored to have this opportunity to work with women veterans from across the nation, their families, healthcare providers, and issue experts. This dialogue allows us to highlight the resources that are available and address how to fix what is missing, so that these women, these heroes, are able to return to full health and lead productive and fruitful lives.”
The National Foundation for Women’s Legislators (NFLW) joined forces with Westcare, a non-profit veterans’ services provider at the second annual event, sponsored by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
“This conference provides an opportunity for women veterans to address the emotional trauma of combat and life after deployment,” read a statement from the NWLF.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) estimates that approximately 1.8 million of the nation’s 23 million veterans are female, and that number is expected to increase by 14 percent through 2035.
America’s returning female veterans often exhibit many new impacts of deployment and combat, providing new challenges for the VA, mental health professionals, healthcare providers, and policy makers, as evidenced by the following statistics:
- 15% of the US Military are now women
- 9,000 women have received prosthetics
- 1 in 5 women screened reported Military Sexual Trauma
- 13,000 homeless are women veterans
- 30,000 single mothers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan
- 40% of women veterans have children
- 8.8% of military women are divorced annually
In March of 2009 Grande also travelled with NFWL to Baghdad at the invitation of the U.S. Department of State to monitor the historic Iraqi elections.
