A growing number of Danish war veterans and their relatives have been reaching out to counselling organisations for help with their psychological problems in the last two months.
In the light of recent tragic events and increased media attention to the problems of soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), more veterans have been calling the lifeline for military employees HKKF Livlinen or using the services of the nonprofit organisation Veteranalliancen.
“In the last few weeks, we have been contacted by several people, because of what happened,” Lisbeth Brixen Nielsen from HKKF Livlinen, told Jyllands-Posten.
“They are troubled and experience uncertainty and anxiety.”
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Preventable tragic incident
Last week, a 42-year-old war veteran with PTSD, Lars Kragh, was arrested in his car near Horsens in east Jutland with the bodies of his dead parents.
At a court hearing in Randers, Kragh pleaded not guilty but admitted he had hit his parents multiple times with fists and an axe in self-defence.
Kragh suffers from severe mental problems due to his experiences in the Bosnian war.
Later it turned out that his murdered mother had several times asked authorities for help – to no avail.
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More suffer from PTSD
Rasmus Jarlov, the defence spokesman for Konservative, has called on the defence minister, Peter Christensen, to launch an investigation in that matter.
The number of Danish soldiers, who have been declared unfit for duty because of PTSD or other psychological problems, has increased by 60 percent in the last three years.
The figure does not include thousands of soldiers who have left the army.
