Audience Perspective: I will be shedding light on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in hopes that the audience can learn about this internal battle that most of our troops come home with. I will be sharing personal accounts of those who have gone through PTSD and information that I have gathered to help the audience better understand what PTSD is.
Speaker Ethos (Experience/Credibility): I have researched many cases of PTSD and have tried to understand the facts behind it. I work with teenage girls in a treatment center who suffer from PTSD on a daily basis.
Organizational Pattern: Topical
Specific Purpose: To inform the audience about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that is combat related and to help the audience empathize with the troops who deal with this disorder after coming home from war.
Thesis Statement: Many people, the majority being veterans, suffer from PTSD, a life altering disorder caused by a traumatic event. The more we understand this condition the more we can empathize.
Introduction:
Hook: Our troops come home with scars that run deeper than is visible on the skin. Traumatic experiences in combat has resulted in an emotionally debilitating and life altering disorder.
Ethos: I have made efforts to be educated about PTSD. I work in a treatment center with those suffering from PTSD. I have interviewed people who I know personally including my brother and a friend of 12 years, who have fought the war in Iraq and a friend who I have known for 9 years who is currently a mental health worker in the military.
Thesis: Many people, the majority being veterans, suffer from PTSD, a life altering disorder caused by a traumatic event. The more we understand this condition the more we can empathize and help.
Body:
a. What is PTSD and who suffers from it.
(Transition: Combats veterans have been found to suffer most due to the amount of violence and death involved)
b. What Combat Veterans have faced in combat and the disorder that comes home with them.
bb. Joshua Alley's personal experience with PTSD.
Bbb. My brother Chris's experience with mild PTSD.
(Transition: Our military hasn't always been great with preparing soldiers for what they will
face during combat. They haven't always held programs to implement soldiers back in to civilian life safely. Although their care could be improved, programs are better prepared to help soldiers find therapy and heal from PTSD.)
C. Military's role in preparing soldiers for combat and the process of sending them home to their families safely.
cc. Info given by Sargent Collier of the Airforce who is a mental health worker and how he is helping men and women with PTSD.
(Transition: Although being struck with PTSD can feel hopeless and dooming, there are therapy treatments to help our beloved veterans heal from the pain caused by war.)
d.Treatment for PTSD
dd. Personal stories by those who have healed from PTSD
e. What is the government doing to help veterans with PTSD
What is the government NOT doing to help.
Conclusion:
- Summary of PTSD
-Awareness of what our returning troops may face
-Empathy towards those who suffer.
