Starting a network of healing

The deepest war wounds are the ones you can't see.

Then, suddenly, there they are: The man who freaks out in line at Starbucks. The road rager on the freeway. The haunted husband. The distant wife.Trisha Pearce can see those wounds, though. After 30 years as a psychiatric nurse for drug addicts and abused women, her eye is quick to recognize souls in need of soothing.

There will be thousands among us as a new generation of veterans returns home, this time from Iraq and Afghanistan. (Some 50,000 Washington state men and women have been deployed for Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom; 8,000 are there now).

"I am tired of feeling impotent about this war," said Pearce, 55. "I am tired of being mad at the Veterans Administration, at the government. I wanted to do something other than sit around, drink coffee and say 'Isn't it awful?' and that they should do something."

So Pearce, who lives in Stanwood, is starting a Northwest chapter of The Soldiers Project, a network of licensed mental-health counselors who offer free psychological treatment to active-duty soldiers, National Guard members, reserves, veterans and their families.

The nonprofit Soldiers Project was founded in 2004 by Los Angeles psychiatrist Judith Broder, who was moved to act after seeing a performance of monologues written by an active-duty Marine and featuring Iraq veterans.

Some 35 percent of Iraq War veterans seek counseling in the year they return. This year, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will spend $3 billion providing mental-health care to about 1 million veterans.

That helps, Pearce said, but the VA's culture of bureaucracy alienates some veterans.

Others don't want to get in any deeper with the military. Or they don't want mental-health issues to be on their records. Or they were dishonorably discharged and aren't eligible for benefits.

Then there's the National Guard: "They're not coming back to a military base," Pearce said. "They're in Baghdad one day, and then they get off the plane and they're home in Bellevue and their wives want them to clean the gutters.

"They are not going to come back and be who they were."

Before she can help them, Pearce must first build a network of psychotherapists willing to volunteer at least one hour a week to soldiers in need.

Once that's done, clients could call or e-mail and, within 24 hours, receive a response from a clinician who will gauge their needs, then search the database of therapists.

On April 28, she will hold an informational session for therapists from 7 to 9 p.m. at University Lutheran Church in Seattle. (RSVP to soldiersprojectnw@yahoo.com).

The project has given Pearce a new purpose and forced her to abandon the antiwar sentiment she embraced in the 1960s. "We should all be saying, 'We're here for you,' and support veterans by making it simple for them to get psychiatric care," Pearce said. "It should be our responsibility, like paying taxes, to go out of our way and do something."

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Tuesday and Friday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

She copes with camomile.