PTSD

Vets have never been taken care of in Canada and this government is worse than all the others because it claims to be doing great things and in reality its taking their very life away. The police described it as "a death declaration."
It was written on a small piece of paper that Mike Pehlivanian had in his pocket when a Vancouver police emergency response team arrested him in July at his father's house near East 54th and Main.
Pehlivanian made it clear in his declaration that he wanted his assets turned over to Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, a combat battalion he served with in Afghanistan.
Pehlivanian's plan that day was to kill himself.
Court documents reveal how the 37-year-old Winston Churchill secondary graduate set six separate fires in the house and punched holes in the walls and ceiling. He told his aunt, who lives in the basement and confronted him after smelling smoke, that he wanted to die and told her to call police.
For six hours, police negotiated with Pehlivanian before he surrendered peacefully. Police found a 10-inch kitchen knife on a dresser in Pehlivanian's bedroom.
His father, Krikor, and brother, Ara, were outside on the street during the ordeal. Krikor was driving cab at the time and Ara, a Vancouver police officer, happened to be on shift but did not participate in the arrest.
"It was difficult for everybody," said Krikor from the living room of his house, which still has the faint smell of smoke. "I could have taken my son from his room easily, without a problem, but the police didn't let me do it."
The stand-off was the climax of a culmination of incidents in which Pehlivanian's mental health deteriorated since returning to Vancouver in 2009 from Afghanistan.
Two days prior to the stand-off, he got into a heated dispute with his father after he smashed holes in his bedroom walls and set fire to his mattress.
Police weren't notified.
Last year, Pehlivanian jumped from the third floor of a downtown hotel and suffered serious injuries. He has talked to his father and aunt numerous times about committing suicide.
So what happened to Mike Pehlivanian?
He was, as his father described, a "normal person" before he went overseas. He had a steady job at a government liquor store and played hockey with friends.
Now he is in a treatment centre in Burnaby which caters to people suffering from mental illness and addictions. Through his lawyer Patti Stark, Pehlivanian wrote in an email that he voluntarily moved in to the centre because there are no military hospitals and he wanted long-term care.
"I want to feel healthy and I am working on it each day," he wrote this week. "I have the scars that forever remind me of my suicidal path. I have memories of pride, memories of death and memories of how it was before my injuries. It's hard on me. Almost every day, I break down in tears."
- See more at: http://www.vancourier.com/a-soldier-s-struggle-1.689759#sthash.sAm5wews.dpuf

The police described it as "a death declaration."
It was written on a small piece of paper that Mike Pehlivanian had in his pocket when a Vancouver police emergency response team arrested him in July at his father's house near East 54th and Main.
Pehlivanian made it clear in his declaration that he wanted his assets turned over to Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, a combat battalion he served with in Afghanistan.
Pehlivanian's plan that day was to kill himself.
Court documents reveal how the 37-year-old Winston Churchill secondary graduate set six separate fires in the house and punched holes in the walls and ceiling. He told his aunt, who lives in the basement and confronted him after smelling smoke, that he wanted to die and told her to call police.
For six hours, police negotiated with Pehlivanian before he surrendered peacefully. Police found a 10-inch kitchen knife on a dresser in Pehlivanian's bedroom.
His father, Krikor, and brother, Ara, were outside on the street during the ordeal. Krikor was driving cab at the time and Ara, a Vancouver police officer, happened to be on shift but did not participate in the arrest.
"It was difficult for everybody," said Krikor from the living room of his house, which still has the faint smell of smoke. "I could have taken my son from his room easily, without a problem, but the police didn't let me do it."
The stand-off was the climax of a culmination of incidents in which Pehlivanian's mental health deteriorated since returning to Vancouver in 2009 from Afghanistan.
Two days prior to the stand-off, he got into a heated dispute with his father after he smashed holes in his bedroom walls and set fire to his mattress.
Police weren't notified.
Last year, Pehlivanian jumped from the third floor of a downtown hotel and suffered serious injuries. He has talked to his father and aunt numerous times about committing suicide.
So what happened to Mike Pehlivanian?
He was, as his father described, a "normal person" before he went overseas. He had a steady job at a government liquor store and played hockey with friends.
Now he is in a treatment centre in Burnaby which caters to people suffering from mental illness and addictions. Through his lawyer Patti Stark, Pehlivanian wrote in an email that he voluntarily moved in to the centre because there are no military hospitals and he wanted long-term care.
"I want to feel healthy and I am working on it each day," he wrote this week. "I have the scars that forever remind me of my suicidal path. I have memories of pride, memories of death and memories of how it was before my injuries. It's hard on me. Almost every day, I break down in tears."
- See more at: http://www.vancourier.com/a-soldier-s-struggle-1.689759#sthash.sAm5wews.dpuf