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Kimberly Hefling

Reporter
Associated Press
Washington, D.C.

Topic: Mental health of female veterans and military families.

Published Work:

As the recession gripped America, thousands of people in rural and suburban areas turned to homeless shelters for help.

The last straw for 17-year-old Alton Burke was a note left on his door. The high school dropout picked up the phone and re-enrolled at South Hagerstown High.

A Veterans Affairs official told a congressional panel on Monday the agency is making improvements to protect patients from rape in treatment facilities after Congress' investigative arm found nearly 300 reports of sexual assaults in the centers over three years.

After Brooke Nyren's dad died in Iraq, she sat alone at recess because her classmates didn't know what to say. One of Alexis Wright's fellow kindergarteners questioned if she was telling the truth about her dad's death in the war, while others told her it was too confusing to understand why she didn't have a father.

The military too quickly destroys records from the hundreds of rapes and sexual assaults reported confidentially each year, say victims' advocates and some members of Congress.

 
Handsome and friendly, Clay Hunt so epitomized a vibrant Iraq veteran that he was chosen for a public service announcement reminding veterans that they aren't alone.

Two failed marriages were the cost of war for Sgt. Jennifer Schobey.

More than a dozen U.S. veterans who say they were raped or assaulted by comrades filed a class-action suit in federal court Tuesday attempting to force the Pentagon to change how it handles such cases.

The Veterans Affairs Department reversed course Tuesday and said it will make sure more caregivers of severely disabled Iraq and Afghanistan veterans can receive the support they need to help their wounded relatives.

The Department of Veterans Affairs said Wednesday that help is on its way as early as this summer for family members of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who have been waiting for a long-delayed program to help care for the severely wounded.

More than 1 in 5 young Iraq and Afghanistan veterans was unemployed last year, the Labor Department said Friday.

Looking decades ahead, the Institute of Medicine is urging the Veterans Affairs Department to begin planning now for the long-term health care needs of the estimated 1.9 million veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Shoshana Johnson survived gunshot wounds to both legs and 22 days as a prisoner of war in Iraq. Life wasn't so easy when she came home, either.

The wife of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had a message Wednesday for those trying to prevent military suicides: Don't forget the spouses.

Home from war and out of the military, young male veterans appear to be committing suicide at a higher rate.