Army veteran LaPlause Moore thought he’d put the trauma of war behind him. But decades after serving his country fighting in Vietnam, the war was brought back home to him. The trigger: Seeing his brother lying dead in 2011 on the ground in Chicago following a motorcycle accident.
“I saw my comrades in similar conditions,” Moore said. “All of it just started coming back. I was spiraling down. Everything started flashing back. I thought it was all behind me.”
The Richton Park resident credits counseling he received at the Chicago Heights Vet Center with helping him recognize he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. They also helped him manage the problem.
With Veterans Day approaching Saturday, I visited the center to learn more about how its staff helps veterans and service members who have put their lives on the line for our country.
“When you find out you’re not by yourself, that’s a big help,” Moore said. “Hearing others in the group that have been through what you’ve been through, and they tell what they did to get through it, you get lessons on dealing with the PTSD. You have to find something that can occupy your mind and relaxes you and doesn’t take you back to that moment, the trigger.”
Vet centers provide free counseling, outreach and referrals for veterans, service members and their families, including individual and group counseling, female and male military sexual trauma counseling, anger management and screening and referral for PTSD and social activities. The Chicago Heights center is one of two in the south suburbs, including Orland Park, and among 300 community-based veteran counseling centers in the United States and U.S. territories.
The Chicago Heights Center’s staff of seven serves at least 200 to 300 veterans a week, said Renee Dickerson, the center’s director who has a master’s degree in counseling and 28 years of experience as a counselor.
“We educate veterans about trauma and the diagnosis of PTSD,” she said. “By being nonjudgmental and willing to learn from them, that’s how we help our veterans. We’re open and receptive in learning what their combat trauma consists of from their perspective. Instead of just telling them what they’re going through, we’re willing to learn because everyone has different experiences.”
Services are available for U.S. veterans from wars and conflicts dating back to World War II through present day. Veterans of the Vietnam War helped shine the spotlight on the problems faced by many veterans, which led to the creation of the centers.
Besides counseling, the Chicago Heights center has a variety of activities, including yoga, meditation, family genealogy and music therapy to help provide veterans with social engagement opportunities.
The yoga sessions started this spring.
“The benefits are relaxed breath and improved sleep; that is what our veterans are reporting,” Dickerson said. “Hypervigilance is one of the main symptoms many of our veterans experience. They are learning to calmly breathe their way through stressful situations.
“Music therapy is an opportunity for them to experience themselves in a different way,” she added. “We have veterans who have never picked up an instrument to those who were accomplished musicians before they joined the military. Just to see them come together and to see that connection is special.”
Dickerson is learning to play the guitar in the therapy sessions, and that has helped veterans become more comfortable opening up to her.
“Often times, I put down my guitar, and they’ll come into my office, and we’ll process something,” said Dickerson, who is an Air Force veteran. Many veteran center staff are veterans and have experienced combat.
The Chicago Heights Center has spousal group meetings, including an annual retreat open to veterans, their spouses and children.
Dickerson stressed the center doesn’t work in a vacuum and partners with Veterans Affairs hospitals. Many veterans come in by word of mouth.
“We utilize a holistic approach,” she said. “We have them enroll in a (VA) hospital. They are assigned a social worker and a psychiatrist and receive wraparound services. Our veterans don’t have to come here. They choose to come here.”
Not being able to sleep and sustain relationships are among PTSD symptoms, she said. Some veterans experience PTSD problems during retirement because they have more time to think about their war experience.
“It doesn’t mean they didn’t experience the symptoms of PTSD over the years, but now they have more time,” Dickerson said. “They accept the fact that something is really wrong with me after the third or fourth marriage and the adult children aren’t talking to them.”
But Dickerson, who has been at the center for 10 years, has seen many success stories. She shared the experience of a veteran who served in Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.
“His symptoms caused the loss of his job, the end of a marriage, but today he’s an attorney, remarried and happy,” she said.
A female veteran, who was grappling with the trauma of sexual assault in the military, went from homelessness to running her own business, Dickerson said.
“We help people readjust from their experiences in war,” she said.
The goal is to help them and their families have a satisfying readjustment to civilian life.
More Top Picks Best Charcoal Drawing Sets For Artists
Moore was drafted into the Army at age 19 and discharged at 21.
“I was in Vietnam one day, the next day I was out on the street,” he recalled.
He said he spent his first days as a civilian sleeping on the floor of a hotel room in Seattle and didn’t immediately contact his family to let them know he was out.
“When I came back, I was aggressive and got into more fights than I should have,” Moore said. “It was rough. I was discharged from the military with no type of counseling or anything to help me get back into society. I think if I had had some guidance, then things in the earlier years probably would have been better.”
He’s in a much better place today.
Air Force veteran Walter Sanders, 73, who served in Vietnam, has been coming to the Chicago Heights center for many years.
“When I first started here, I was a mental wreck, a physical wreck and thinking my kids didn’t like me,” the Richton Park resident said.
Like so many vets, he said he didn’t realize he was suffering from PTSD. He said he served in a combat zone in Vietnam. His job was seeing that troops got the equipment they needed, filling out casualty reports and ensuring soldiers’ remains were sent home properly. Before serving in Vietnam, he was an Honor Guard for the Air Force.
“Going to all those small towns, burying soldiers, after Vietnam, eventually things really started bothering me,” Sanders said.
At times, he felt guilty for having survived the war, he said.
“I was wondering why so many friends I knew didn’t make it back, and I came home,” he said. “I couldn’t sleep. I developed ulcers. I had anger problems. At one point in time, I didn’t think my kids cared too much for me. I didn’t want to be around people. Crowds would make me nervous. Eventually I had to seek out help.
“I learned to communicate with others, not to have preconceived notions. I learned coping skills, how to relax. I know certain things will trigger my anger, so I don’t look at war movies and certain news. Instead of wanting to be angry, I will call my friends and talk to them. We talk each other down. Those are the things that have helped me cope.”
Dickerson said she’s learned much from the veterans she’s counseled.
“I’ve learned hope,” she said. “People who thought they were going to die, made it out of those situations. They teach me that challenges can be overcome, that the sun will come up the next day.”
Their tough experiences should teach Southland residents something as well — gratitude.