Hi there,
It's John Chipman from The Sunday Edition at CBC Radio. I posted here last November looking for reservists to speak about their experiences with PTSD for a radio documentary I'm working on. I left my phone number and email for anyone interested in finding out for more about the project, or myself. A number of people contacted me, so thank you to Army.ca for providing this outreach platform. But I am new to this type of message board and it did not occur to me to look back here to follow comments. I left my contacts. If people had questions, I assumed they would get in touch. It wasn't until someone called me today to say there was a comment thread (much of it hostile) on the post that I tweaked onto the fact that people were also posting here. It seems embarrassingly obvious now that I should have been monitoring the site as well, but it was an honest oversight.
Anyway, that's a long way of saying I'm sorry if anyone was offended by my out-of-the-blue request, and then sudden silence. But please know I have been working diligently for the past two months talking with reservists and Reg Force soldiers, and their families, right across the country. I am not a soldier or reservist myself, but I feel strongly that this is an important issue that is not understood or appreciated among the civilian population. I was not, and am still not, interested in sensationalizing the issue. It's clear there's a lot of hostility and mistrust about the media in general and the CBC in particular, and I know much of it is well earned. All I can stand on is my own work.
The focus of my radio documentary will be a reservist chaplain who counseled many injured soldiers and the families of fallen soldiers, and ended up developing PTSD himself. He and his family have paid a heavy price. He has struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts, and guilt that he doesn't have the right to be struggling because he did not see front-line combat. I think his story speaks to the depth and complexity of PTSD when even the people tasked with helping soldiers struggling with it are not immune themselves. The documentary will be going to air in February or March. I will post back here when I have an air date. And I sincerely hope listeners, and especially soldiers, hear some truth in it.
Best regards,
John Chipman
The Sunday Edition
CBC Radio
416 205 2545
john.chipman@cbc.ca
