Three veterans who served Canada in the former Yugoslavia—Steve Hartwig, Jason McKenzie, and Scott McIntyre McFarlane—have marched across the country to raise awareness of PTSD

When Steve Hartwig, Jason McKenzie and Scott McFarlane arrived in Antigonish, Nova Scotia on September 7, they paused at the downtown cenotaph honouring fallen soldiers from World War I. They were close to reaching the end of their march across Canada to raise awareness of PTSD among Canada’s veterans.

In WWI, the psychological distress of soldiers was attributed to concussions caused by the impact of shells; this impact was believed to disrupt the brain and cause “shell shock” (Bentley, 2005). Now, in 2014, there is greater understanding of what is called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder—but education and awareness is still lacking.

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“Find your lonely road and follow it…follow it through everything to the end of the road and then let go of that road…put it behind you…”

In the past three years, 50 recognized Canadian Forces veterans have committed suicide directly related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of their tours in Afghanistan. Put into perspective, there were 158 Canadian Soldiers killed in combat in Afghanistan over the 12 year campaign. If the current rate of suicides continues, then 200 Veterans of the Afghanistan war will die by their own hand in Canada in the same time frame.

PTSD has been wounding people in the Canadian Forces, and veterans, for some time—but it seems to be taking an ever-increasing toll as Canadian veterans die by suicide and family members raise questions about the supports needed but not offered or available.

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