As psychologists, we can easily see the level of helplessness and suffering that people feel, and even we, who are well trained to deal with it, can find it difficult. Public servants and politicians have even fewer tools to deal with this suffering. So, often, in response to this level of helplessness, there is a tendency to want to act quickly and to want to regulate it. Unfortunately, this creates a lot of bureaucracy, processes and assessments, and the desire to reassure ourselves by doing this causes veterans to suffer. It's as if they have to jump through hoops over and over again to finally believe that we have what we have, in order to get the treatment we need. I don't think people do it on purpose, but I think it's a process that adds to the veteran's suffering.
