Healing Invisible Wounds
Suzanne Carey dedicates her career to helping homecoming veterans
BY CLIFF NEWELL
The West Linn Tidings, May 13, 2010,
Suzanne Carey served in the U.S. Army and is now entering a new battlefield – helping veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. To accomplish this, Carey is seeking to earn her master’s of divinity degree at Marylhurst University.
VERN UYETAKE / west linn tidings
Call her Carey, not Suzanne.
As she says, “Old Army habits die hard.”
In any case, it seems like Suzanne Carey never really left the U.S. Army anyway, even though her enlistment ended in 2005.
It’s just that she is going onto another battlefield: Helping veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan heal from wounds that don’t show on the outside. Injuries to the spirit, mind and soul.
“I feel it’s important to give back to veterans, as a veteran myself,” Carey said, who lives in Woodside, Calif. “I understand the culture, the lingo and the community.
“For me it makes sense. I’ve seen a lot of struggles and mental health issues and problems with returning home,” Carey said. “With my background in the Army and with counseling, I think I am uniquely qualified to help veterans.
“Plus, I really care about veterans.”
To accomplish her goals, Carey is seeking to earn her a master’s of divinity degree at Marylhurst University, which she believes is the perfect place to help her attain her career aspirations.
“Marylhurst is small, it has a spiritual base if you want it, and I love the professors,” Carey said. “They’ve done all kinds of ministry and they’re great mentors. They really believe what they teach.”
Carey’s teachers think just as highly of her.
“What I love about Carey is her radical sense of commitment,” said Dr. Sheila O’Connell-Roussell, “to her God, her country and humanity. She is transparent in her sense of mission … She wants to give the gift of faith to all whom she serves.”
The spiritual aspect is extremely important to Carey because it is why she joined the Army in the first place in 2001. On the surface, the move was baffling, because she had already earned a master’s of science in counseling and was experienced in marriage and family counseling, mental health, and suicide/crisis counseling. With her educational background, she was even qualified to be an officer. But she chose not to take that option.
Carey was definitely not a typical Army recruit. Yet she came to strongly believe she should sign up, for reasons that she did not understand at the time. So she did. Just a few weeks before Sept. 11, 2001.
“I was at Fort Dix, New Jersey for basic training,” Carey said. “When September 11 happened, that changed everything. We were put in lockdown and put on 24-hour watch. We didn’t know what was happening. We thought they were using scare tactics. I thought, ‘This can’t be real.’”
But it was real, and gradually Carey began to understand why she had felt such a strong desire to join the Army. Her fellow soldiers helped her understand.
“I kind of hung back in the shadows during basic training,” Carey said. “I was 24 years old then and most of the other new soldiers were 18 or 19. But no matter how much I stayed in the shadows, people always sought me out.”
She even earned a nickname for the spiritual qualities she could not disguise – “Nun Lady.”
“The sergeant called me that,” Carey said. “It made me laugh inside. But it was also validation that I was supposed to do something with my skills and desires.
“If I had not joined the Army, I would not have the same foundation I have today.”
Carey just missed being sent to the battlefront, but people like her are now badly needed by soldiers returning to the U.S. in ever-increasing numbers. Their problems are almost overwhelming.
“These soldiers are broken. They’ve lost a lot,” Carey said. “Being in the military will change someone’s life. There are the invisible scars – suicide, post-traumatic stress disorder, fatigue. A lot of citizens don’t understand this, which is a double whammy. There’s a huge readjustment to make among civilians who don’t understand.
“Often a returning veteran is isolated emotionally and turns to destructive behaviors, just looking for a way to cope.”
One more important factor drastically increases the chances for post-service problems. Due to lack of personnel, soldiers have been called on to make multiple tours of duty, from 8 months to 1½ years at a time.
“They don’t have enough time to heal, and we don’t have many resources to help them,” Carey said.
Now, Carey is stepping out of the shadows. She is planning to undergo intensive training to become an Army chaplain, and it is likely she soon will be serving at a VA hospital, giving a unique “veteran to veteran” kind of healing.
But this extremely goal-oriented young woman has something else in mind. Someday she wants to teach religion at Marylhurst University. It’s another way of “giving back.”
“That requires a PhD,” Carey said. “But I’m up for the challenge.”
No comments:
Post a Comment