At VA, peer counselors connect with struggling veterans

Nextgov.com

A decade ago, gripped by alcoholism and drug addiction, Navy veteran Albert Krull contemplated jumping off the Tobin Bridge spanning the Mystic River in Boston. Instead, Krull decided to seek treatment at the nearby Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Bedford, Mass., where today he serves as a peer counselor for other veterans at the same hospital that helped restore his life. Jason Zimmerman, an Army medic who served in both Bosnia and Iraq, experienced horrors he said most civilians cannot begin to comprehend, such as “your friends dying, no matter what you do.”

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