By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A difficult personal experience motivated an area state senator to push for post-traumatic stress disorder treatment in the Missouri state budget.
Sen. Rusty Black of Chillicothe sponsored a bill appropriating $4.3 million toward PTSD treatment for Missouri’s military personnel, police, firefighters, and other emergency personnel.
Black came face-to-face with the problems of PTSD when his son came home from the military threatening to take his own life.
“In three days, Rusty Black and Karie Black knew a hell of a lot more about PTSD and how to do treatment than what we would have ever known before,” Black tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “So, instead of my wife and I staying quiet about it, we’re trying to bring treatments to the state of Missouri.”
Black says his son received successful treatment, but had to seek it in Texas.
The senator says the money in the Missouri budget would fund clinics throughout the state, including two in Kansas City as well as a mobile unit that could provide treatment to rural Missouri.
Black says those tasked with difficult and dangerous jobs need to know they can get support.
“Because if I remember right, the police officer that took his life from St. Joe, I believe he had a Bronze Star. He probably served in the military the same time my son did,” Black says. “And we need them to know that there’s help out there and there’s various ways to be able to get treatment and try to promote it.”
St. Joseph Police Officer Kyle Graham took his own life May 30th. Graham earned two Bronze Stars during his service in Afghanistan and Iraq as part of Bravo Company 2-22 Infantry, 10th Mountain Division. Graham also served as a captain in the Army Reserves 209th Regional Support Group. Graham was 40.
The death of Graham by suicide tragically brought home the pressures on those who have served in the military as well as those active in the police force.
St. Joseph Police Chief Paul Luster calls Graham’s death a tragic loss for the department and the community.
“I think it’s important for our community to know, for your listeners to know, that this is an extremely difficult job in many different ways, but the mental toll this job takes on the men and women out there every day can be overwhelming at times,” Luster tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline.
The legislature approved the allocation for PTSD treatment in response to a handful of self-inflicted deaths among Missouri emergency personnel. The $51 billion budget has been sent to Gov. Mike Parson for his consideration.
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