As a wife of miltary veteran who is still trying cope with war experiences, Percilla Newberry, president of the Association of Vietnam Veterans of America's Texas State Council said there was both good news and bad news regarding veterans who come home suffering from what they endured.
"There used to be 22 veterans a day that committed suicide in the U.S.," Newberry said. "The number has now dropped to 17 a day, but that is still high and within that number more and more of those suicides are women veterans.
As part the Vietnam Veterans of America's Texas State Council's two-day convention in Texarkana, Newberry felt like it was necessary to spend the event's first evening talking about veteran suicide prevention.
Since the AVVA serves as a support organization for the VVA, Newberry spoke to her AVVA members Friday evening about the need drive the present suicide rate down even further.
"We will be talking about suicide prevention because it important to get an education on how to stop veterans suicides in Texas as well as everywhere else,"she said. "Today, it not only Vietnam veterans taking their own lives, but women veterans of both the war in Iraq and in Afghanistan that are now starting to take their own lives."
Both male and female veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. This is also causing a type of secondary PTSD among their spouses.
"We need to start listening to the younger veterans and we need to teach then what we are now starting to learn as we try to cope with TPSD," she said.
The convention continues today starting at 9 a.m. at the Texarkana, Texas, Convention Center.