As the U.S. military is short on therapists, thousands of private counselors have decided to offer free services to troops returning from the dreadful war places, namely Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to an April 2008 Rand Corp. Report, about 20 percent of military service members who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from major depression or post traumatic disorder. The situation is even worse, as only half of those who need treatment seek it, but only slightly more than half of those who receive treatment receive at least minimally adequate care.

“There is a major health crisis facing those men and women who have served our nation in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unless they receive appropriate and effective care for these mental health conditions, there will be long-term consequences for them and for the nation,” Terri Tanielia, the project’s co-leader and researcher at the Rand Corp, said at the time.

Post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental illnesses of these troops can have very bad repercussions on family members and loved ones. “These conditions can impair relationships, disrupt marriages, aggravate the difficulties of parenting, and cause problems in children that may extend the consequences of combat trauma across generations,” the Rand Report concluded.

PTSD and other mental illnesses also lead at some point to homelessness. Almost 154,000 veterans are homeless on any given night and nearly 300,000 are homeless at some time during the year.

The repercussions are already seen in the number of military service members committing suicide every week (126), as the health care system fails to provide them the necessary medical help. Also, nearly 1,000 veterans attempt suicide while in VA care every month.

As they fight the nightmares of the war, these veterans also fight with an inefficient health care system, which puts them on wait lists for more than five years for any assistance. According to Terry Jones, a Pentagon representative on health issues, there are only 1,431 mental health professionals among the nation’s 1.4 million active duty military personnel.

Moreover, about 20,000 more full- and part-time psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric nurses, social workers and substance abuse counselors provide health care services for the Veterans Administration and the Pentagon, and still there is not sufficient personnel to cope with the health crisis among veterans and their families.

“Honestly, much is being done by the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs. But the need to help these men and women goes far beyond whatever any government agency can do,” said retired Army Brig. Gen. Stephen Xenakis, a psychiatrist, as quoted by the Associated Press.

Xenakis also added that thousands of therapists are willing to help these veterans who “volunteered to defend our nation, and now our nation can volunteer to verve them.”

One of these people willing to give support to veterans is Barbara V. Romberg, a clinical psychologist practicing in Washington who said there are enough people specialized in treating PTSD and other war illnesses among the 400,000 mental health professionals in the U.S. In cooperation with the American Psychiatric Foundation, she hopes to find 40,000 volunteers over the next three years. Also she is the founder of Give An Hour, a group of 1,200 mental health professionals who donate one hour or free care a week to veterans or family members.