Austin Founder Lions Club

Veterans and PTSD - Patrick Smith

  • 10 Nov 2016
  • 11:45 AM - 1:00 PM
  • The High Road, 700 Dawson Rd, Austin TX 78704

Registration

  • includes luncheon meal
  • Includes luncheon meal

Veterans and PTSD

Patrick Smith

November 10, 2016

Introduced by Lion Tom Orlando

   
Patrick V. Smith, LCSW

I am a Vietnam Veteran who served in Vietnam in 1970-1971 in “I” Corps are west of Phu Bai and ended up outside the Ashau Valley during the second push to take that region. I was in Vietnam for 14 months earning the rank of Sargent E-5 and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal.

I came home and spent many years struggling with motivation, pride for having served and things that would now be described as symptoms of PTSD. I did manage to get a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree, but even that did not lead to a career.

I drifted around the county staying a few years here and there even spending a decade here in Austin.

When the current wars began I was in counseling at a Vet Center in Maine and through some intense discussion about my current situation of being laid off from my job and anger about going to war again I decided that if I was to find some peace then I needed to do something positive.

What I decided was to go back to school, earn a Master’s degree in Social Work and be there for the new Veterans struggling as I had. Within 2 months of that decision I was enrolled in a reputable Social Work program and became fully licensed to be a counselor the same day I began my job at the Knoxville Vet Center in Tennessee; that was in 2008.

I have since been a Team Leader and helped open a new Vet Center in Canton, Ohio and, finally, I decided to move back to Austin as a counselor and help with the Veterans in this community at the Austin Vet Center.



Featured Lunch Menu:
Beef Pot Roast
Steamed Carrots
Mashed Potatoes
Peach Cobbler

Meals provided by Manny Sifuentes, manager at Cafe del Rio, a business staffed by the Commission of the Blind     
    
Please register by 5 p.m. on Tuesday

We order meals based on your reservations and must pay for them even if you do not show up. Please keep this in mind if your plans shift and cancel your reservation so we can adjust the headcount.


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