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s of this writing, approximately 30% of
the nearly one million veterans of the
Iraq and Afghanistan war who have
been treated at Veteran Administration hospitals
and clinics have been diagnosed with PTSD. This
is not counting the veterans who have neither been
treated nor diagnosed. It is estimated that the total
number of veterans with PTSD from our war on
terror is nearly half a million.
At the same time that American employers are
now pledging to hire wounded warriors in record
numbers, Human Resource Professionals must
ask, “Is my organization ready, not just to hire
these returning veterans but to train, supervise,
communicate, interact with and accommodate them
in the workplace?” We find that American employers
are now faced with a challenging dichotomy — the
contrast of strongly supporting the hiring of wounded
warriors, and at the same time feeling unqualified
and uneasy about supervising them.
It is important to remember that hiring veterans is
not the primary goal. Hiring them and having them
become successful employees who are acclimating
back into civilian life is the goal. Our job doesn’t
end with the photo opportunity for hiring them — it
begins the day after— the first day on the job.
Training managers, supervisors and employees
about wounded warriors is as important as any
other of your diversity awareness programs.
Successful employers are conducting wounded
warrior employment training with employees, as
well as with the wounded warriors themselves, with
great success.
But where do we start? One good place to begin
is to take a common sense approach to educating
your workforce about Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder — separating the facts from the myths,
beliefs and stereotypes. We call this step “taking
the “D” out of PTSD.” From this point in this article, I
will not use the term PTSD again. I will use the more
accurate term, PTS.
Professionals in the field of disability employment
have long observed that supervisors and co-
workers feel more comfortable and confident
about working with persons who have mobility,
sensory, intellectual, and physical impairments than
emotional impairments. We are familiar with physical
impairments. We feel we can understand being blind
because we all have the experience of being in the
dark. We understand missing limbs or being unable
to walk or hear. These disabilities are obvious,
visible to us, often stable and generally predictable.
The persons who have them have needs that are
frequently obvious and common sense. There is
little or no blame, nor judgment, attached to the
people who have these impairments.
Emotional disabilities are neither obvious nor
simply understood. There are many myths
and misconceptions that surround emotional
impairments. This often causes discomfort,
uncertainty and fear in those who work with people
who have these impairments. Post Traumatic Stress
is the rule here, not the exception. The public
frequently believes that Post Traumatic Stress is
an unnatural overreaction to a stressful event. Too
often, the blame is attributed to the person with
Post Traumatic Stress rather than the stressful
event itself.
It is in everyone’s best interest to take another look
at Post Traumatic Stress with a calm and common
sense approach. Post Traumatic Stress is actually
very natural. Almost all of us have experienced
or witnessed something horrible or frightening
in our lives. Remember, the definition of what is
considered traumatic in anyone’s eyes varies widely
depending on many factors, including personal
history and personality. Traumatic experiences can
include anything that causes fear, intense pain,
or horror. Examples range from car accidents to
natural disasters to violent crime and combat.
It is very important to realize that we all deal with
our difficult experiences in the most adaptive way
we know. Most of us try to make sense of the event
in some way, attempt to integrate the experience
into our lives, and then do our best to go on as
unaffected as possible. For most people, the pain
of a traumatic event causes some problems in the
weeks after the experience. Many sleep poorly,
have nightmares, remember the event through
intrusive memories, and feel generally anxious,
jittery, and unsafe for a little while. For most, time
takes care of us and helps us move on without too
much interference in our lives.
Taking the “D” out of PTSD
By Keynote Speaker, Dr. Richard Pimentel and Dr. Heidi Kraft
WHAT YOUR MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS NEED TO KNOW
ABOUT HIRING AND WORKING WITH WOUNDED WARRIORS
