It’s becoming a common scene to see our military personnel returning home from war suffering from mental and physical wounds.

According to RAND (2009), 981,834 veterans return to the U.S. with 18 percent suffering from some form of mental illness.

The mental illnesses that our veterans are experiencing can go unseen unlike a physically wounded veteran. The unseen wounds can create problems within a veteran’s life and how they cope. Military individuals struggle on a daily basis with the invisible wounds of serving in a highly stressful environment.

When they return home, wounded veterans should not have to worry about receiving quality care in a timely manner. For veterans suffering from mental illnesses, they do not have the time to wait for care from the Department of Veterans Affair.

According to the VA, there are 3.4 million wounded warriors residing in the United States. That is a very high number of individuals who are attempting to seek care from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The sad reality is that with such a high volume of wounded warriors seeking care that the VA has become impacted.  

Many veterans are waiting six months to a year to receive assistance in accessing services and benefits within the VA.

The huge backlog of veterans waiting to seek care from the VA has created issues in regards to the fact that our veterans are not receiving the care that they truly deserve sooner.

In 2008, the Wounded Warrior Act was passed into legislation as an attempt to improve mental and physical health care for returning military personnel.

The act strives to create changes in the way that the VA system addresses the issues of veterans not having access to quality care.

A major problem that the VA faces is the large number of individuals who go in and out of the doors at VA clinics.

The Department of Veterans Affairs serves 8.3 million veterans across the nation. This is important to know because it allows an individual to understand that the VA is trying to help those who are asking for help but with the overload that they are facing, it can be tough.  

We are trying to find answers to the problem and create a better environment within the VA for veterans to ensure that they receive care in a timely fashion before it may be too late.

For veterans who have to wait for long period of time, they may turn to other outlets as a way to destress.

The outlets that a veteran may choose may be negative and be costly to them. These outlets are a mixture of alcohol or drug abuse, and the last resort may be suicide.

If there is such a backlog of care within the VA, it is time for other resources to be utilized for our veterans to ensure that they have a safe space to turn to before it’s too late.

Veterans should be provided with a list of resources that they can access while waiting to receive assistance from the VA.

There is no such thing as leaving what they see behind them because they will always carry the tragic events that they experienced while serving in a war zone.

We must continue to honor our veterans no matter what they are experiencing and assist them in receiving the care that they need. We can’t let them give up on themselves as they wait to receive quality care from the VA.

We can help them by assisting in sharing information about resources that are available within their own local communities and keep fighting alongside them to ensure that the wait time continues to decline.

Jacqueline Wilson is a masters of social work graduate student at the University of Southern California. She is from Clearlake, Calif.