Driver's ed to cope with PTSD

This is an excellent article about the challenges people with PTSD face while driving, and what one VA hospital is doing to help:

Palo Alto's VA Hospital offers driver's ed to cope with PTSD

Monitoring prison officers with PTSD

According to a recent article from The Associated Press, a number of veterans returning to work in the States have found jobs as prison guards. And that can set them up for a fall.

Police and corrections officers are loath to show weakness, and few seek help to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder, said Caterina Spinaris Tudor, founder of Desert Waters Correctional Outreach in Canon City. She said PTSD developed abroad can be retriggered on the job by varying scenarios, including assaults, hostage situations or suicides by inmates or fellow officers.

But prison officials in Colorado, New Jersey and other states are looking at this as a problem that can be addressed, and are adding counselors to help corrections officers to deal with their PTSD and the stress of their jobs.

Read all about it at the link above.

How children react to parents with PTSD

One family member's PTSD can have terrible effects on the rest of the family, especially when it's a parent suffering.

According to an article from the National Center for PTSD, the symptoms of PTSD "can be frightening not only for the individual experiencing them but also for the children who witness them."

Children often react to PTSD in three common ways: by behaving like their PTSDer parent (the "over-identified child"); by trying to fill the adult's normal role in the family (the "rescuer child"); or by becoming emotionally uninvolved.

All of these responses can pose problems for a child later in life. And in fact, the children can, themselves, develop their own cases of PTSD, a condition known as "intergenerational transmission of trauma."

But that doesn't mean the situation is hopeless for families. According to the article, simply explaining to a child why a parent has been traumatized (without going in graphic detail) can go a long way toward alleviating the stress a child feels.

Treatment/therapy as a family is also often a valuable asset and tool.

If anyone in your family is suffering from PTSD, this article by Jennifer L. Price, PhD, is essential reading:

When a Child's Parent Has PTSD - National Center for PTSD

Oklahoma college offers help for veterans

You don't need to live in Oklahoma to learn some good facts about PTSD from this article.