REMARKS
Council Member Holden's personal experiences with veteran PTSD
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159 sec
Council Member Holden shares his personal experiences growing up with a father who suffered from PTSD after World War II. He emphasizes the impact on family members, particularly children, and the importance of identifying and supporting them.
- Holden had to take charge of his family at age 11 due to his father's PTSD
- He highlights the generational impact of untreated PTSD on families
- Holden stresses the need for better outreach to family members, especially children of veterans with PTSD
Robert F. Holden
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Yeah.
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Because I always say that the city is great on programs.
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They're just dead on communications.
0:35:06
Mhmm.
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And this is this is one thing that I think we could actually help so many New Yorkers, especially veterans, but family members.
0:35:16
On that, if you if you saw that that 60 minutes report, the reason why it resonated with me because it mentions that one family member is usually Like, for me, you know, it was I had to take charge of the family at at the age of eleven years old, essentially.
0:35:36
Mhmm.
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Which was, it all fell on me, and it got to a point where I couldn't take it anymore.
0:35:45
You know?
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So we got to a point where I was ready to just, like, to get out of any everything and just wanted to leave home.
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My brothers and my sister did, I couldn't do it because I couldn't leave my mom.
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But We we have to identify those those children because it it like I said, it could be passed down to generation.
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I mean, I I happen to luck out because I met a woman that saved me, but there are so many people, so many members of families that fall by the wayside.
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And especially, it always falls on one child usually.
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I mean, I've noticed it.
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And I talked to people who have went through the similar, and many of us went through it being children of World War 2, of of people returning.
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So we all experienced it.
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My my wife experienced it very differently, and but she experienced probably a lot more stress than I did.
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Being, you know, she was born in Japan, she came to the United States, as a Japanese American post World War 2.
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Try to imagine what that was like with all the propaganda against the Japanese, which my dad experienced when he found out I was going to marry a Japanese American, he hit the ceiling, wouldn't come to my wedding, and wouldn't talk to me.
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So this is this is what happens, but it it it is came from war.
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It came from war, and it and it continues.
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So for for us, for as a city to not try to reach out to family members, children of veterans who suffer serious post traumatic stress disorder.
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We know who they are.
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We know who many of them are.
0:37:29
They did reach out.
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They are suffering, but we're I don't know if we're reaching them.
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I really I can't we might be doing a small percentage, but we can't say that we're we're ahead of the game here.
