Sgt. Jacob Blaylock, seated left, one of four in his Guard unit to commit suicide, at the grave of Sgt. Brandon Wallace
Houston Crum is the Team Leader of the Buffalo Vet Center, the VA’s specialized counseling program for returning war zone veterans and their families. His counseling career began in 1971 as a US Army counselor at a satellite clinic of Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He managed a drug and alcohol counseling program for the Department of the Army in Maryland before moving to Western New York in 1984. He became a Readjustment Counselor at the Vet Center in 1990 and the Team Leader in 2001. Since March 2003, he has worked extensively with military family support programs in the Western New York area.
Successful social, psychological, and physiological adjustment to military service in a war zone creates consequent readjustment challenges for returning war veterans. In no other area of life functioning is this readjustment difficulty more evident than relationships with family members (many of whom have themselves undergone notable changes during the deployment).
